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Warren Buffett

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Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway; chief executive 1970-2025; earlier general partner, Buffett Partnership Ltd.

The Berkshire shareholder letters are a primary source in their own right, read and cited far beyond investing.

2 books of their own · 12 biographies about them · 83 letters · 5 articles · 76 books they recommend

Books they wrote 2

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Co
The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America
Lawrence A. Cunningham · 1997 · Buffett's own letters arranged by theme; he wrote no standalone book.
OL18072192W
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
· 2015 · Compiled reprint of the annual letters, not separately written.
OL20484732W

Biographies about them 12

Two full biographies anchor the literature, one authorised and one not, surrounded by a large method-study industry.

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalis
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
Roger Lowenstein · 1995 · Unauthorised; still the best account of the partnership years.
OL3268119W
The Essays of Warren Buffett
The Essays of Warren Buffett
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Warren E. Buffett · 1997 · Cunningham arranges Buffett’s letters by theme into a corporate primer.
OL18072192W
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Busines
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder · 2008 · Authorised biography; Buffett gave full access, then distanced himself.
OL9450331W
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Warren Buffett, Max Olson · 2015 · Buffett’s own annual letters, collected in full.
OL20484732W
The Warren Buffett Way
The Warren Buffett Way
Robert G. Hagstrom · 1994 · Method study rather than biography.
OL2394154W
Tap Dancing to Work
Tap Dancing to Work
Carol J. Loomis · 2012 · Edited Fortune archive, 1966-2012, by his long-time editor and friend.
OL21260472W
Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buff
Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett
Andrew Kilpatrick · 1994 · Sprawling, repeatedly expanded compendium of Buffett material.
OL3542793W
The Warren Buffett Portfolio
The Warren Buffett Portfolio
Robert G. Hagstrom · 1999 · Hagstrom on focus investing and running concentrated portfolios.
OL15833896W
The Warren Buffett Way
The Warren Buffett Way
Robert G. Hagstrom · 2004 · Hagstrom traces the businesses and reasoning behind Buffett’s buys.
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Warren Buffett's Ground Rules
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules
Jeremy C. Miller · 2016 · Miller reconstructs Buffett's partnership-era rules and results.
OL26789887W
The Warren Buffett CEO
The Warren Buffett CEO
Robert P. Miles · 2002 · Interviews with Berkshire subsidiary managers.
OL5971358W
Creating a Portfolio like Warren Buffett
Creating a Portfolio like Warren Buffett
Jeeva Ramaswamy · 2012 · Step-by-step attempt to replicate Buffett’s selection process.
OL21471843W

Letters 83

www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

Berkshire Hathaway's own index at berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html holds every annual chairman's letter for 1977-2024: 1977-2003 as HTML pages (/letters/<year>.html), 2004-2024 as PDFs (/letters/<year>ltr.pdf). Berkshire also posts full annual and interim reports at berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html. The Buffett Partnership Ltd. letters to partners, 1959-1969, plus the earliest Berkshire letters 1970-1976, are not on Berkshire's site; Redfield, Blonsky & Starinsky LLC hosts the complete set of individual PDF and HTML files at rbcpa.com/warren-e-buffett/buffett-letters-1959-present/. The 1959-1969 partnership PDFs at rbcpa.com are page scans with no text layer, so they will not search.

Articles and essays 5

Books they recommend 76

Buffett has said he reads 500 pages a day and has been doing so for most of his adult life, but his recommended reading list is surprisingly compact. The books he returns to — and presses on others — cluster around a few ideas: that markets misprice businesses in the short run, that the character of a company's management matters enormously, and that the most durable competitive advantages compound quietly over time. The list began with Graham, then branches into business biography. Read in order, it traces an intellectual arc: from valuation mechanics, through business biography, to a broader theory of judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. His picks surface in the Berkshire annual letters, interviews, and forewords he has written.

Book recommendations listed on their Good Books profile 40

Investing 8

The Most Important Thing Illuminated
The Most Important Thing Illuminated
Howard Marks aggregator only
source
Common Sense on Mutual Funds
Common Sense on Mutual Funds
John C. Bogle aggregator only
source
The Essays of Warren Buffett
The Essays of Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, Lawrence A. Cunningham aggregator only
source
The Most Important Thing
The Most Important Thing
Howard Marks aggregator only
source
Take on the Street
Take on the Street
Arthur Levitt, Paula Dwyer · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
The Theory of Investment Value
The Theory of Investment Value
John Burr Williams aggregator only
source
Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks
Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks
Philip A. Fisher aggregator only
source
Investing Between the Lines
Investing Between the Lines
L.J. Rittenhouse · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Biography and Memoir 5

Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger
Tren Griffin aggregator only
source
Personal History
Personal History
Katharine Graham aggregator only
source
Keeping At It
Keeping At It
Paul A Volcker · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Jack
Jack
Jack Welch aggregator only
source
In an Uncertain World
In an Uncertain World
Robert E. Rubin, Jacob Weisberg · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Financial History 4

Stress Test
Stress Test
Timothy F. Geithner aggregator only
source
Bull!
Bull!
Maggie Mahar · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
A Piece of the Action
A Piece of the Action
Joe Nocera aggregator only
source
Firefighting
Firefighting
Ben S. Bernanke et al. · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Company Histories 3

Dream Big
Dream Big
Cristiane Correa aggregator only
source
The Smartest Guys in the Room
The Smartest Guys in the Room
Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind aggregator only
source
The Farmer from Merna
The Farmer from Merna
Karl Schriftgiesser · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Sociology and Culture 2

The Moment of Lift
The Moment of Lift
Melinda Gates · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
40 Chances
40 Chances
Howard G. Buffett · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Business and Management 2

Business Adventures
Business Adventures
John Brooks aggregator only
source
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure
Donald R. Keough · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Economics 2

The General Theory of Employment, Interest,
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
John Maynard Keynes · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Essays in Persuasion
Essays in Persuasion
John Maynard Keynes · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Philosophy 2

Life Is What You Make It
Life Is What You Make It
Peter Buffett · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
The Ultimate Quotable Einstein
The Ultimate Quotable Einstein
Albert Einstein · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Politics and Government 2

Nuclear Terrorism
Nuclear Terrorism
Graham Allison · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
The Making of The President
The Making of The President
Theodore White · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Finance and Markets 2

The One Week Budget
The One Week Budget
Tiffany Aliche · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
The Wealth Choice
The Wealth Choice
Dennis Kimbro · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Psychology and Behaviour 1

Influence
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini, PhD aggregator only
source

Negotiation and Persuasion 1

How To Win Friends and Influence People
How To Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie aggregator only
source

Science 1

A Short History of Nearly Everything
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson aggregator only
source

Technology and Computing 1

Tools and Weapons
Tools and Weapons
Brad Smith aggregator only
source

Biography of Scientists 1

The Man Behind the Microchip
The Man Behind the Microchip
Leslie Berlin aggregator only
source

Sales and Marketing 1

Secrets of Successful Sales
Secrets of Successful Sales
Alison Edgar · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Entrepreneurship and Startups 1

First A Dream
First A Dream
Jim Clayton · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Sport 1

The Science of Hitting
The Science of Hitting
Ted Williams aggregator only
source

Superbook reading list 11

Investing 7

The Intelligent Investor
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
source
“Buffett has called this the best book about investing ever written. He read it at nineteen and credits it with giving him the intellectual framework he has used ever since — specifically Graham's concept of Mr. Market and the margin of safety principle.”
Security Analysis
Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham
source
“The academic companion to The Intelligent Investor, co-authored by Graham and David Dodd. Buffett studied under Graham at Columbia and later worked for his firm. He has described this book as foundational to everything he does, returning to it over the course of his career.”
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Philip A. Fisher
source
“Philip Fisher's approach — scrutinizing management quality, competitive position, and long-term growth potential — became the other half of Buffett's investing framework. Buffett has said he is '85% Graham, 15% Fisher,' and this is the book behind the Fisher portion.”
The Essays of Warren Buffett
The Essays of Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
source
“Lawrence Cunningham's thematic compilation of Buffett's Berkshire shareholder letters, organized by topic. Buffett has endorsed it as the most accurate single-volume distillation of how he thinks about businesses, capital allocation, and corporate governance.”
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charlie Munger
source
“Charlie Munger's collected speeches and writing, edited by Peter Kaufman. Buffett has credited Munger's mental-models framework — the idea of using multiple disciplines to avoid the errors any single lens produces — with upgrading his own thinking substantially.”
Margin of Safety
Margin of Safety
Seth Klarman
source
“Seth Klarman's out-of-print treatise on risk-averse value investing. Buffett has praised it for its intellectual honesty about the difficulty of the craft and its insistence on preserving capital before pursuing returns. Copies trade for hundreds of dollars on the secondhand market.”
Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and
Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
Bruce Greenwald
source
“Bruce Greenwald's Columbia Business School textbook, which Buffett has spoken warmly of. It bridges the Graham tradition and modern competitive analysis, framing valuation as an application of economics rather than pure accounting.”

Business and Management 2

Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales fr
Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street
John Brooks · not in an entry yet
source
“Buffett gave his personal copy to Bill Gates in 1991, calling it his favorite business book. John Brooks's twelve New Yorker stories from the 1960s read as case studies in corporate decision-making, panic, hubris, and the unpredictability of markets.”
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
William N. Thorndike
source
“William Thorndike's study of eight CEOs who dramatically outperformed the S&P 500 by treating capital allocation as their primary job. Buffett wrote the foreword and has recommended it repeatedly, describing it as a model for how to think about management quality.”

Biography and Memoir 2

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Busines
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder
source
“Alice Schroeder's authorized biography, drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews. Buffett granted Schroeder access he has given no other biographer, and the book contains the most detailed account available of how his thinking evolved from Graham-era bargain hunting to the quality-focused approach Berkshire became known for.”
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
source
“Buffett has recommended Franklin's autobiography many times across interviews and letters, citing Franklin's self-improvement program, his frugality, and his approach to reputation as early influences. It is one of the few non-finance books he returns to in public recommendations.”

Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters (index) 8

Investing 5

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Philip A. Fisher
source
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Fred Schwed Jr.
source
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules
Jeremy C. Miller
source
Supermoney
Supermoney
Adam Smith · not in an entry yet
source
Security Analysis (1940 edition)
Security Analysis (1940 edition)
Benjamin Graham, David Dodd · not in an entry yet
source

Biography and Memoir 1

Limping on Water
Limping on Water
Phil Beuth · not in an entry yet
source

Food 1

Forty Chances
Forty Chances
Howard G. Buffett · not in an entry yet
source

Company Histories 1

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. — Celebrating 50 Yea
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. — Celebrating 50 Years of a Profitable Partnership (2nd edition)
· not in an entry yet
source

2012 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, p. 21 3

Investing 2

Tap Dancing to Work
Tap Dancing to Work
Carol J. Loomis
source
“Carol Loomis, who has been invaluable to me in editing this letter since 1977, has recently authored Tap Dancing to Work”
The Clash of the Cultures
The Clash of the Cultures
John C. Bogle
source
“I also recommend The Clash of the Cultures by Jack Bogle”

Business and Management 1

The Outsiders
The Outsiders
William N. Thorndike
source
“The Outsiders, by William Thorndike, Jr., is an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation.”

2012 Berkshire shareholder letter 2

Investing 2

Security Analysis
Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham, David L. Dodd
source
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Philip A. Fisher
source

2014 Berkshire shareholder letter 2

Investing 2

Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Fred Schwed
source
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
John C. Bogle
source

2019 Berkshire shareholder letter 2

Investing 1

Common Stocks as Long Term Investments
Common Stocks as Long Term Investments
Edgar Lawrence Smith
source

Business and Management 1

Margin of Trust
Margin of Trust
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Stephanie Cuba
source

2013 Berkshire shareholder letter 1

Investing 1

The Intelligent Investor
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
source

2016 Berkshire shareholder letter 1

Biography and Memoir 1

Shoe Dog
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
source

Buffett on the reports as the fullest statement of his philosophy 1

Investing 1

Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Warren Buffett
source
“I actually think by reading Berkshire's reports, you should be able to get more — I would think you'd get more of our philosophy than in any other manner.”

2005 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, p. 21 1

Investing 1

Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charles T. Munger, Peter D. Kaufman
source
“You will never find a book with more useful ideas.”

2006 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, p. 22 1

Decision Making 1

Seeking Wisdom
Seeking Wisdom
Peter Bevelin
source
“We've added a few titles this year. Among them are Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin”

Buffett on Frank Martin's collected letters 1

Investing 1

Speculative Contagion
Speculative Contagion
Frank K. Martin
source
“For many years I've enjoyed reading Frank Martin's letters. This collection contains much investment wisdom and, just as important, sets a standard for advisor-client relationship.”

Buffett urging partners to hurry out and buy Adam Smith's book 1

Investing 1

The Money Game
The Money Game
Adam Smith
source
“For a magnificent account of the current financial scene, you should hurry out and get a copy of 'The Money Game' by Adam Smith. It is loaded with insights and supreme wit.”

1997 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter 1

Sport 1

The Science of Hitting
The Science of Hitting
Ted Williams, John Underwood
source
“In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells”

Where they publish 12

Tags

berkshire-hathawaybuffett-partnershipgeicosee-s-candiesbenjamin-grahamcharlie-mungerphilip-fisherequitiesinsuranceconglomeratesvalue-investingcapital-allocationowner-earningseconomic-moatslong-term-holding