Fortune met Warren Buffett by accident in 1966. I was writing an investing article about another man, Alfred Winslow Jones, who wasn't famous at that moment, but was about to be because of the article. Jones was running something called a hedge fund, and Fortune's description of what that was and how Jones operated started a miniboom in the hedge fund business. Buffett Partnership Ltd. -- a sort of compe of Jones's fund -- got a single line in the article. To my everlasting diay, I misspelled Buffett, giving it only one "t."
A bit later, my huand, John Loomis, met Buffett and came home saying, "I think I have just met the artest investor in the country." I'm sure my eyes rolled. But then I, too, got to know Warren (and his wonderful late first wife, Susie) and realized how impressive this largely unknown fellow was. The Loomises bought stock in his all company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA); we became good friends of the Buffetts; and ultimately I became the pro bono editor of his increasingly famous annual letter to shareholders.
Meanwhile, Fortune set off on a long-term course of covering Buffett. He got two paragraphs and a picture in a 1970 Fortune story called "Hard Times Come to the Hedge Funds" -- his fund was a rarity, having 13 straight years of profits -- and by 1977 we were running a 7, 000-word piece by Buffett on "How Inflation Swindles the Equity Investor."
Now, 46 years after Fortune first met the man, we have a book, Tap Dancing to Work, that collects everything important we've done about him (and some lighter stuff too), with commentary written by me. All the articles mentioned above, from the A.W. Jones story on, are in it -- and that's just the start. In total, the book is a Buffett banquet.
What follows are some choice quotes from its pages and a selection of photographs that mark the passing of time, as Buffett grew into an investor/manager/philanthropist whose place in history is assured. One thing is certain: We are awfully glad to have been there as it happened.
A coda: In 1966, when Fortune first met Warren Buffett, Berkshire's stock (today's Class A) was $22. In early November, it was about $130, 000.
1980s
Aug. 22, 1983: Letters from chairman Buffett
"The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do."
Dec. 26, 1983: Can you beat the stock market?
In investing, says Buffett, "you wait for the 3 and 0 pitch."
Jan. 20, 1986: Merger fees that bend the mind
"Buffett is so art," remembers Bruce Wasserstein, "that you had to be careful to avoid being picked."
Sept. 29, 1986: Should you leave it all to the children?
"Would anyone say the best way to pick a championship Olympic team is to select the sons and daughters of those who won 20 years ago? [That would be] a crazy way for a society to compete."
Dec. 7, 1987: Early fears about index futures
"We do not need more people gambling in nonessential instruments identified with the stock market in this country, nor brokers who encourage them to do so … We need the intelligent commitment of investment capital, not leveraged market wagers."
April 11, 1988: The inside story of Warren Buffett
"With few exceptions, when a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
Oct. 30, 1989: Are these the new Warren Buffetts?
"You don't need a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the 160 IQ guy beats the guy with the 130 IQ … Rationality is essential when others are making decisions based on short-term greed or fear. That is when the money is made."
