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a paper trail did not surface to document this until May 1974 (Katharine Graham, Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997). Graham filed an affidavit with the FCC on June 21, 1974, saying the challenge was “part of a White House–inspired effort to injure…the company in retaliation for its Watergate coverage.” Morton Mintz, “Mrs. Graham Links White House, TV Fights,” Washington Post, June 27, 1974; David E. Rosenbaum, “Threats by Nixon Reported on Tape Heard by Inquiry,” New York Times, May 16, 1974.

2. Katharine Graham, Personal History.

3. Ibid.

4. All quotes on Meyer are from Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of André Meyer: A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business. New York: William Morrow, 1983.

5. Cary Reich, Financier.

6. “The whole company at one point got down to where it was selling for eighty million,” Buffett says. “We spent a little less than ten million bucks when all was said and done and paid a price that valued the company on average at a hundred million.”

7. Graham’s memoir, which downplays her relationship with Meyer, credits Gillespie and Beebe for the idea of the two-class stock. Meyer’s biographer, Cary Reich, credits Meyer for the idea. Given Meyer’s talents as a banker, it seems unlikely he had no involvement.

8. Warren Buffett letter to Katharine Graham, May 1973.

9. Jim Hoagland, “A Journalist First,” Washington Post, July 18, 2001.

10. Robert Kaiser, “The Storied Mrs. Graham,” Washington Post, July 18, 2001.

11. Cary Reich used the term “irate” in Financier.

12. Interview with Arjay Miller.

13. Katharine Graham, Personal History.

14. “A Sure Thing? What Is Inside Information? Forget the black-and-white definitions. The real world often comes in gray, like at the San Jose Water Works,” Forbes, September 1, 1973.

15. The company had disclosed in 1971 that the city was interested in buying it.

16. Interview with Bill Ruane.

17. Warren Buffett letter to Malcolm Forbes, August 31, 1973.

18. Interview with Bill Ruane.

19. Katharine Graham, Personal History.

20. Patrick Brogan, The Short Life and Death of the National News Council: A Twentieth Century Fund Paper. New York: Priority Press Publications, 1985. The Council survived for eleven years before giving up—a decade before the Internet became available—for lack of a viable outlet through which its findings could reach the public.

21. Interview with George Gillespie.

22. Interview with Don Graham.

23. Katharine Graham, Personal History.

24. October 20, 1973.

25. Graham’s foreword to Meg Greenfield’s Washington. New York: Public Affairs, 2001.

26. Graham more tactfully called him a “delightful and mischievous goad” in Personal History.

27. In her book, Graham recalls that “someone” mentioned the amortization of intangibles and that Howard Simons, unprompted, then challenged her to define it. Possibly Graham did not perceive herself as “showing off” when writing what was, after all, her own memoir.

28. Interview with Don Graham.

29. Interview with Liz Hylton.

30. The Dumbarton Oaks Conference; the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

31. Wisner was the widow of Frank Wisner, and married columnist Clayton Fritchey in 1975, becoming Polly Fritchey.

Chapter 38

1. Wattles, confusingly, bore the same name as Gurdon W. Wattles, the “streetcar king” of Omaha, who was no relation.

2. Interviews with Ed Anderson, Marshall Weinberg.

3. Buffett bought American Manufacturing at 40% of what he thought it was worth. “How Omaha Beats Wall Street,” Forbes, November 1, 1969.

4. A couple of other people did what Wattles did—Thomas Mellon Evans and Jean Paul Getty. Buffett followed Evans, too, while another Columbia friend, Jack Alexander, and his partner, Buddy Fox, followed Getty, who pyramided oil companies and wrote a book, How to Be Rich (not how to get rich). Evans, a Pittsburgh businessman, discussed in “Heirloom Collector,” Time, May 11, 1959, operated through H. K. Porter and Crane Co. Wattles, who is virtually unknown today, was a director of Crane.

5. It didn’t make you huge money