Buffett

Warren Buffett began with nothing and built one of the great fortunes of the twentieth century by choosing stocks and companies to invest in. His net worth stands at $10 billion and still climbing. Anyone who put $10,000 into his Omaha partnership in 1956 and left it there would hold $80 million now.

This biography sets out to explain the man behind the figures, known as the Oracle of Omaha. He is a billionaire with a modest lifestyle, a deal-maker with a homespun manner, and an investor who stays clear of the constant buying and selling common on modern Wall Street.

Journalist Roger Lowenstein spent three years with unprecedented access to Buffett's family, friends and colleagues, and the book is built on that inside view of his life and career.

The portrait that emerges shows a conscientious man of integrity and good humor who lives with an odd emotional isolation. Lowenstein ties Buffett's method to his character: buy shares in companies the market undervalues, then hold them until their worth surfaces. The question running through the book is why that patience works so well.