Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/More in '04, California Edition [Hardcover]

Andrew Kilpatrick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0964190559 | ISBN-13: 978-0964190559 | Publication Date: December 2003

This biography of investor Warren Buffett tells how he forged Berkshire Hathaway into a $100 billion company. The book uncovers almost all the Buffett legacy in 1,500 pages and 750 photos. It's called the California Edition because of:

1. Buffett's backing of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the California eletion.
2. The tracing of a group of Stanford Business School students who heard Buffett speak there decades ago. Their remarkable careers are followed in light of Buffett. One student turned over word-for-word notes from a talk Buffett gave there in 1978.
3. A rare interview with Harry Bottle, 84, of California, who was Buffett's early Mr. Fix-it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I'm waiting for more complete coverage." -- Warren Buffett

"This is the Buffett 'bible'...It provides the definitive story of his career." -- The Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Andrew Kilpatrick is a 1965 graduate of Washington and Lee University where his academic achievements were most visible during road trips and stirring track meets. He served in the Peace Corps in India speaking haphazard Hindi, earned a master's degree in English while freezing at the University of Vermont and he was a U.S. Navy officer where his actions merely heightened the quagmire in Vietnam. His 20-year career with newspapers in Birmingham included eight years as a business reporter. He subsists as a stockbroker with Wachovia Securities in Birmingham.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1500 pages
• Publisher: Andy Kilpatrick Publishing Empire (AKPE) (December 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964190559
• ISBN-13: 978-0964190559
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.1 x 3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Buffett, Warren

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OPV, Behavioral Finance, and Fun, December 18, 2003

By 

Bud Labitan "value investor" (Schererville, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/More in '04, California Edition (Hardcover)

Andy Kilpatrick did a great job as usual. The chapters are organized as short stories. These stories and pictures take the reader into the world that surrounds Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, family, friends, fans, and the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary companies. The book is a solid account of Warren Buffett's and Berkshire's history. Furthermore, it includes many of the people that have been affected by this growing phenomenon called Berkshire Hathaway.

The author presents the story with a good sense of humor and he captures the spirit of fun each of these people bring to the annual meetings. I almost fell off my chair after seeing page 1464. This biography of investor Warren Buffett includes 1,500 pages and 750 photographs. It is a real valuable addition to anyone's library, and it is offered at a bargain price, relative to its intrinsic value. For those new to the study of the Buffett-Munger investment phenomenon, this book is a "must have" to your collection. The Compounding Success of the Graham-Dodd-Buffett-Munger investment ideas are conguent with ideas presented in the OPV book. Forget the Efficient Market Hypothesis! In an old school paper entitled the "Compounding Success Model", found somewhere on a web search, I had concluded that 10 major factors contributed to the Compounding Success of the Graham-Dodd-Buffett-Munger investment approach:
1. Rational and thorough business analysis, with keen emotional intellects that promote ethical information exchange.
2. Wide experience with analyzing and managing numerous different businesses.
3. Charlie Munger's Role as (a.)"Devils-Advocate" (Munger as therapist/analyst of investment decisions) and (b.) Munger's role in encouraging further limiting the portfolio towards "wonderful businesses."
4. Leverage via a Low Cost of Capital from Insurance Operations
5. Disciplined Tracking of Understandable Businesses
6. Analysis of Strategic and Sustainable Competitive Advantages of Industries and Businesses. Warren Buffett has a Masters in Economics from Columbia University and Charlie Munger has a Law degree from Harvard University. Both have a variety of operational business experiences.
7. Trustworthy First-Class Managements with proven track records.
8. Ben Graham's Mr. Market and search for the Margin of Safety. The Margin of Safety is the bargain obtained when purchasing at a market price below the intrinsic value estimation. Graham and Dodd taught: "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return."
9. Satisfaction: Buffett stated: "Though "working" means nothing to me financially, I love doing it at Berkshire for some simple reasons: It gives me a sense of achievement, a freedom to act as I see fit and an opportunity to interact daily with people I like and trust."
10. Learning from Practice, Mistakes, and Experiences: "After many years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them."

Andy's book gives you a more comprehensive view of the human interactions that make these successes possible. I also got a big kick of Andy including my poem on page 1034. This book gives a very good account of Buffett's business and investing evolution. Any student of "investment decision making" should review this work. I learned more about this evolution by reading an earlier OPV edition. It described the growth from Benjamin Graham's classical "Value Investing" to the Buffett-Munger "wonderful business" purchases.

Of Permanent Value: The Story Of Warren Buffett is a big book that will appeal to fans of financial wizard Warren Buffett. It explores how Buffett began from scratch to form a business empire. It includes in-depth examinations of business philosophy while providing a fun and lively read. In my view, time is the friend of the wonderful book, and the enemy of the mediocre one. This one packs a big punch. In time, it will be a bestseller.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate book for Buffett junkies, December 17, 2003

By 

Whitney R. Tilson "WTilson" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/More in '04, California Edition (Hardcover)

Kilpatrick's latest magnum opus is a gem. 256 chapters and 1,478 pages (it weights FIVE pounds!) of endless entertaining, educational stories about the world's greatest investor (and a great human being as well).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A one volume encyclopedia of Warren Buffett, January 13, 2004

By 

JBenvent (Haworth, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/More in '04, California Edition (Hardcover)

There are a lot of books vying for your money that bear Warren Buffett's name. Only one of those books bears his endorsement - Of Permanent Value.

If you are building a Buffett library, I recommend starting with his own words in the form of Buffett's annual letters to shareholders, many of which are available on the Berkshire Hathaway website for free. Next you need get Of Permanent Value. Think of OPV as a one volume encyclopedia about everything Buffett.

Like a good encyclopedia, you never know what you'll find in Of Permanent Value - profiles of the people and companies that Buffett invests in/with and equally important, the people and companies who invest in/with Buffett. Vital investment information, with good humor and Buffett trivia mixed in. Reading OPV is a little like opening a treasure chest - you never quite know what you'll find inside!

I have owned every edition in OPV - Mr. Kilpatrick does an amazing updating the book so that its important to get the latest editions to remain current. I usually buy a few copies because OPV is literally so big that its difficult to carry from place to place. So, I just keep a copy at home, a copy at the office, and a copy at my in laws.

By the way - every single one of those other Buffett books you see on Amazon all cite Kilpatrick as a source. Start your Buffett book buying here. You aren't serious about Buffett or investing if you don't own it.