 First edition cover | |
| Author | Alice Schroeder |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Biography |
| Genre | Biography, business, investing |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
Publication date | September 29, 2008 [1] |
| Media type | Print, e-book |
| Pages | 976 pp. (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0553805093 |
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life ( ISBN 0553805096) is a biography of Warren Buffett by Alice Schroeder.
Before this book was written, Warren Buffett rejected numerous approaches by biographers, journalists, and publishers to cooperate on an account of his life. [2] After spending six years as the only Wall Street analyst Buffett would speak to, Alice Schroeder was approached by Buffett to write his biography. In 2003, she left her job at Morgan Stanley and traveled to Omaha to work on the book full-time. Schroeder spent over 2,000 hours reading Buffett's personal files while interviewing Buffett, his wife, children, sisters, friends, and business associates. [3] Before Schroeder began writing, Buffett told her he would not ask for any revisions once the book was finished and, where accounts of his life differed, to always use the "less flattering version." [2]
The Snowball was Amazon.com's best business and investing book of the year 2008. [4] Time Magazine , People Magazine , and critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times named it one of ten best books of the year. [5] The Washington Post , the Financial Times , BusinessWeek , and Publishers Weekly also each named The Snowball the best book of 2008. [5] The book was shortlisted for the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, [6] as well as the 2009 Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business journalism. [7] A reviewer in The Economist noted that for those "hoping for detailed analyses of his investment record" the place to start is "Mr. Buffett’s collected essays and annual reports." [8] As a look at Buffett, the Washington Post stated The Snowball was "the most detailed glimpse inside Warren Buffett and his world that we likely will ever get...a bible for capitalists” [9] and the Los Angeles Times wrote it was "the most authoritative portrait of one of the most important American investors of our time." [10]
The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) is a hypothesis in financial economics that states that asset prices reflect all available information. A direct implication is that it is impossible to "beat the market" consistently on a risk-adjusted basis since market prices should only react to new information.
Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his immense investment success, Buffett is one of the best-known fundamental investors in the world. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of $117 billion, making him the seventh-richest person in the world.
Benjamin Graham was a British-born American economist, professor and investor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two of the founding texts in neoclassical investing: Security Analysis (1934) with David Dodd, and The Intelligent Investor (1949). His investment philosophy stressed investor psychology, minimal debt, buy-and-hold investing, fundamental analysis, concentrated diversification, buying within the margin of safety, activist investing, and contrarian mindsets.
Susan Thompson Buffett was an American activist for the causes of civil rights, abortion rights and birth control, and the first wife of investor Warren Buffett. She was a director of Berkshire Hathaway, owning 2.2 percent of the company worth about $3 billion at the time of her death, making her the 153rd richest person in the world. She was president of the Buffett Foundation, which has contributed millions of dollars to educational groups, medical research, family planning groups and other charities.
Howard Homan Buffett was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He was a four-term Republican United States Representative for the state of Nebraska. He was the father of Warren Buffett, the American billionaire businessman and investor.
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Rose Blumkin was an American businesswoman who founded the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937. Businessman Warren Buffett said of her, "One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I’d rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny. They buy brilliantly, they operate at expense ratios competitors don’t even dream about, and they then pass on to their customers much of the savings.
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Alice Schroeder is an American executive, financial journalist, and author who was Berkshire Hathaway's leading sell-side insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley and later became Warren Buffett's appointed biographer. Schroeder remains a widely-regarded insurance expert, having most recently served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Prudential PLC. In the first week of October 2008, she published The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, a New York Times bestseller. As a project manager for the US Financial Accounting Standards Board, she oversaw the release of SFAS No. 113, a critical change in US reinsurance accounting regulations. Since 2008, Schroeder has worked as a columnist for Bloomberg News.
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William H. Thompson was a writer, psychologist, professor, Presbyterian minister, and the father-in-law of Warren Buffett.
Doris Eleanor Buffett was an American philanthropist also known as the 'retail' philanthropist and the founder of The Sunshine Lady Foundation, The Learning By Giving Foundation, and The Letters Foundation which she co-founded alongside her younger brother, billionaire Warren Buffett. She was the daughter of Leila (Stahl) and U.S. politician and stockbroker Howard Homan Buffett. Doris Buffett intended to give all of her money away before she died.
Ernest Platt Buffett was an American businessman and grocer. He was the father of U.S. Congressman Howard Buffett and grandfather of famed American businessman and investor Warren Buffett.