cover image Warren Buffett: The Good Guy of Wall Street

Warren Buffett: The Good Guy of Wall Street

Andrew Kilpatrick. Dutton Books, $24 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-334-5

Ranked eighth on Forbes magazine's list of the richest Americans, Warren Buffett (b. 1930) began investing in the stock market when he was only 11 years old, we learn from this unabashedly admiring biography. Kilpatrick, a business reporter for the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald , portrays Buffett as so astute and highly principled a leader as to be ``the one man'' capable of saving giant brokerage firm Salomon Brothers when, after a potentially fatal scandal in 1991, Buffett was named Salomon's temporary CEO. Meanwhile Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's modestly run investment firm, headquartered in his native Omaha, Neb., has outperformed the Dow averages consistently since its inception in 1965, when a share traded at $12-$13 (by the end of 1991, the share price was $9050, the highest on the New York Stock Exchange). Kilpatrick's story focuses entirely on finances. Although Buffett did not authorize this work, its hyperbolic and frankly partisan tone give it the feel of a press release. (Oct.)