Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist.

• Author: Nocera, Joseph

It's hard not to like Warren Buffett, the so-called Sage of Omaha. With his aw-shucks manner, his homespun sayings, his unquestioned honesty--not to mention his preference for Cherry Coke over Bordeaux, hamburgers over filet mignon, and Omaha over New York--he presents a most appealing persona. Yes, it's true, he travels in a private jet, but he had the wit to name it "Indefensible." And yes, he now hobnobs with the likes of President Clinton, but no one can ever accuse him of disloyalty to his Nebraskan friends.

And it's hard not to admire the way Buffett made his fortune. From a standing start--his father was a small businessman and three-term congressman but left no great wealth behind--Buffett has become the second richest man in America, worth $10.7 billion. This entire fortune comes not from creating new companies (a la Bill Gates, the only man in America richer than Buffett), but rather by investing in them. This is astounding. For most of us, investing is the diciest of enterprises. Yet for over 30 years, the great bulk of Buffett's investments have gone in only one direction: up. And in an age when money managers often turn over their portfolios every six months, Buffett stays steady: He holds many of the same stocks today that he did 10 and even 20 years ago. His favorite time horizon, he likes to say, is "forever."

With Wall Street as full of scoundrels as ever--brokers who "churn" accounts to reap commissions; portfolio managers who leak their "favorite" stocks to the press, only to sell when the unwashed start buying--Buffett's probity stands in stark relief. He explains in simple English what he does and why to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company and chief investment vehicle. Through it all, Buffett has gotten rich by staying true to himself--to his sense of the "right" way to invest and to live as well.

Thus has Buffett come to stand as a kind of living rebuke of this cynical time. He would seem to be proof--maybe the only proof left--that virtue can still be its own reward. That is why he has become an American icon. As Roger Lowenstein elegantly puts it towards the end of this sweet biography:

We see him in his inner sanctum, without advisor

or lackeys, opposite the framed and fading newspapers

and the looming picture of his father...

Hours pass without interruption; the telephone

scarcely rings. He pursues his craft, looking not

for patterns on a screen but for the fundamental

values, the...