Tap Dancing to Work

A collection edited by Carol Loomis, the Fortune journalist who has edited Warren Buffett's annual shareholder letter since 1977. The book compiles forty-six years of Fortune coverage on Buffett — articles Loomis herself wrote, pieces by other Fortune writers, and articles Buffett contributed anonymously or under his own byline — arranged chronologically from his 1966 emergence to 2012, with Loomis supplying context throughout.

Gates called it "great stories from a very smart guy." The book is on Buffett's own about shelf in this library with the note that he co-signed 500 copies for the 2013 Berkshire annual meeting — a signal of how closely associated he is with its content. For a founder, this is the closest thing to a chronological record of how Buffett's thinking evolved across half a century, told by the person who has edited his written words longer than anyone else alive.

What makes it distinct from a biography is the primary-source density: Buffett's own letters to Fortune explain his reasoning on specific investments (Coca-Cola, Salomon, GEICO) in real time rather than retrospectively. A founder trying to understand how a capital allocator thinks across market cycles gets the original argument, not a biographer's summary. The Loomis editorial framing also catches what Buffett chose to say publicly at specific moments — which is often different from what he said to Berkshire shareholders in the same period.