Katharine Graham
Turns Out David Carr Is Not the First Memoirist to Interview People About Himself
In our defense, this morning's piece on David Carr didn't technically assert that no one had ever written a reported memoir before. Good thing, too, because the late Katharine Graham totally did it more than 15 years ago and won a Pulitzer prize for it! We know this now thanks to Chicago-based author Carol Felsenthal, who brought it to our attention in a comment she left on our Carr story. read more »
Ms. Felsenthal started reporting her unauthorized biography of Graham in the early '90s, while Graham herself was working on the memoir that would become 1998's Personal History. According to Ms. Felsenthal, many of the people she interviewed for her book—
The Secrets of Warren Buffett's Psyche
Here as I gleaned them are the secrets of Buffett's genius:
1. Simplicity. He learned when he was young that he had a highly circumscribed "circle of competence," as he likes to say—basically, the love and study of good businesses. He stayed within that circle, forever. His judgments are filled with homespun simple analogies. "Leave yourself a margin of error. Don't try and drive a 9800 pound truck over a bridge that can only support 10,000 pounds."
2. Study, concentration. The thing Buffett likes to do most is read. He spends 80 percent of his time reading, company reports and journalism. He is a kind of luftmensch. Indeed, 45 years ago, his neighbor turned down an opportunity to give him $10,000 (a stake now worth $400 million) because he couldn't see giving money "to a guy who doesn't get up and go to work in the morning."
3. Humor. He loves to laugh at himself. He grabs every opportunity Rose gives him to do so.
4. Generosity. Many times Rose shows Buffett reaching out to others. He offered the neighbor an in on his investment company because he likes the guy's kids. He offered Katharine Graham companies he would have bought himself because he adored her so much. The third show, tonight, is about Buffett's recent gift to the Gates foundation. So brimming with generosity—and life has repaid him. "The gift is to the giver," as Whitman said.
5. The worship of women. Though psychologically incurious himself, he has, per the Jungian phrase, a "highly developed anima." He seems to respond to women more than men. This has led him to close relationships with some of the most sophisticated women on the planet. He seems to have fallen in love with Kay Graham, and made it his project to build her confidence as a manager—and his $10 million stake, picked up in the Nixon years, when the Republicans declared war, is now worth $1.5 billion. His late wife Suzie reveals herself—Rose says he got the only interview she ever did on TV, in 2004—as a woman of enormous depth and sensitivity (now reflected in her daughter) who had the wisdom to nurture Buffett when he chose to sit in his room and read all day long, and could make fun of him. The best line in the first show is when she tells Rose that her father told her when Buffett came a-wooing, "He has a heart of gold." Then she throws in, "No pun intended."
6. Pleasure-seeking. Buffett has always done what he most liked to do, and avoided all things that he disliked. "I knew what I enjoyed." Everything from delivering newspapers as a boy to hobbies of playing the ukulele and bridge and telling corny anecdotes.
Adding all this up, the one word I'd choose for Buffett is childlike. There is a naive and wondering quality to his statements. As his late wife says, he couldn't take care of himself. His humor is often cornpone, his psychological judgments seem credulous and boyish. And the joy he derives from his work, it's like a kid in a sandbox.
Perplexed on the Op-Ed Page, Dowd Clings to Categories
Perplexed on the Op-Ed Page, Dowd Clings to Categories
Farewell to Mrs. Graham, Triumphant to the End
Cokie and Rocker: One's a Suckup, The Other a Fuckup
