Authorised Buffett biography shows billionaire investor in new light

01 October 2008

After years spent declining offers from editors and publishers, Buffett granted unprecedented access to Morgan Stanley executive Alice Schroeder, who is said to have spent approximately two thousand hours interviewing and observing "The Oracle of Omaha". By Sourya Biswas

''Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful'' this advice by legendary investor Warren Buffett has stood the test of time and stock market fluctuations. Amazingly, it was delivered to a group of students at Columbia University, when Buffett was a mere 21 years old. Over the years, this remarkable man from Omaha accumulated a fortune worth more than $60 billion, and even more remarkably, decided to donate most of it.

At this point of a global economic meltdown when centuries-old financial institutions are falling like dominoes and investors are seeing decades of profits wiped out from their portfolios, the publication of a biography of the world's most respected, and by far the richest, investor is especially noteworthy. And to add to the uniqueness of the tome, it is the first authorised biography of Buffett written with the active co-operation of the subject, and reveals unknown facets of his life in surprisingly intimate detail.

The weighty book -  it's 976 pages long - titled ''The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life'' has been written by former Morgan Stanley executive Alice Schroeder and was released on 29 September 2008 by Bantam Books, priced at $35. The title refers to one of Buffett's folksy sayings about success: "Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill," and is an apt description of the manner Buffett accumulated his wealth, starting with delivering newspapers as a young boy.

After years spent declining offers from editors and publishers, Buffett granted unprecedented access to Schroeder, who is said to have spent approximately two thousands hours interviewing and observing the No.2 on Forbes' richest list in his Omaha office and elsewhere. To put this access in perspective: In June last year the chance to have lunch with Buffett fetched $2.1 million at a charity auction won by a Chinese investment fund manager.

Bantam Dell, a division of Random House, won the rights to publish "Snowball" in a reported $7 million deal with Schroeder, one of the biggest book advances on record. The deal puts it close to the $7.1 million General Electric's former chief Jack Welch is said to have received for his memoir and the $10 million-$12 million former US president Bill Clinton banked for his autobiography "My Life."

The publisher describes the publication thus: ''Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as ''The Oracle of Omaha.''