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That he and Graham—who showed the aftereffects of an upbringing by a cruel, neglectful mother and years of abuse by a sadistic husband with untreated bipolar disorder—would be mutually attracted seems almost a foregone conclusion given Buffett’s own childhood experiences. He knew how to behave around her in a way that wasn’t threatening. By the spring of 1974, she began to switch her allegiance from her other advisers to him. In turn, he seized the chance to tutor the CEO of the Washington Post Company about business as if he had been waiting to play Pygmalion all his life: his very own Eliza Doolittle. More patient than Henry Higgins, he coached her gently and sent helpful, interesting articles to Kay and to her son Don.

As Buffett’s influence grew stronger, Graham noticed that the words “Warren says” brought shudders from some of her board members.3 But Buffett himself was hoping to be invited onto that board. When Tom Murphy had approached him to join the Cap Cities board, Buffett told him no, he was holding out for the Post.4 Murphy dutifully spilled this news to Graham, who “felt dense” for not having figured it out herself.5

Susie thought that instead of taking on more business responsibilities, her husband should sell some of their stock and use it for a higher cause. Riding with him in a taxi in Washington, D.C., she pointed out philanthropist Stewart Mott, who was running the Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust, which gave money to peace, arms control, and population and family-planning causes. The Buffetts were now richer than Mott, who had started with $25 million. “Why don’t you quit?” Susie said. “Stewart Mott is doing all these other things now and he doesn’t have to work every day.” But Warren was incapable of quitting; he fell back on his philosophy that $50 million today would be worth $500 million someday. Nonetheless, he was not entirely disengaged from his family nor insensitive to his wife. He had picked up some vibrations from Susie, a sense that she wanted more from her life. With Peter moving along in high school, Warren told her, “Susie, you’re like someone who has lost his job after twenty-three years. Now what are you going to do?”

Photo Insert Two

Image 24

In 1945, Warren and Lou Battistone “lusted after” Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton, the pioneer in women’s weight-lifting.

Image 25

Warren sang and played the ukulele every morning before work at an employee “pep rally” in the basement of JC Penney’s, where he sold menswear and men’s furnishings in 1949.

Image 26

Warren pretends to pick the pocket of his fraternity brother Lenny Farina in 1948.

Image 27

In 1951, Warren dated Vanita Mae Brown, who was “Princess Nebraska” in the 1949 National Cherry Blossom Festival, as well as Miss Nebraska 1949.

Image 28

Susan Thompson and Warren Buffett beaming at their wedding, April 19, 1952.

Image 29

Susie Thompson as a preschooler.

Image 30

Warren posing as a prisoner on his honeymoon, April 1952.

Image 31

An undated photograph of Graham-Newman partners Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham.

Image 32

Warren teaching one of his early investing classes, probably Sound Investing in Stocks, at the University of Omaha, 1950s.

Image 33

Susie Buffett in New York City, holding daughter Susie Jr. during a visit with Ben and Estey Graham. Estey is holding the Buffetts’ new baby, Howard Graham Buffett.

Image 34

Susie with, clockwise, Peter, Howie, and Susie Jr., in the mid-1960s.

Image 35

Charlie Munger as a baby in his father Al Munger’s arms, already wearing his trademark skeptical expression.

Image 36

Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger in the 1980s. Buffett calls them “Siamese twins, practically.”

Image 37

First meeting of the ”Graham Group” at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, 1968. Left to right: Buffett, Robert Boorstin (a friend of Graham’s), Ben Graham, David “Sandy” Gottesman, Tom Knapp, Charlie Munger, Jack Alexander, Henry Brandt, Walter Schloss, Marshall Weinberg, Buddy Fox (in profile), and Bill Ruane. Roy Tolles took