1. “A. C. Munger, Lawyer, Dies,” Omaha World-Herald, July 1, 1959.
2. The obituary of Henry A. Homan, son of George W. Homan, in the Omaha World-Herald, March 22, 1907, mentions that Homan, who was twelve years older than Judge Munger, was a close friend of the judge. The Homan and Buffett sides of the families, however, were not close.
3. “33 Years a Federal Judge,” Omaha World-Herald, March 12, 1939.
4. Lowe, Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. Lowe’s biography, which is based on extensive family interviews, was the author’s principal source for the Munger family history.
5. Said approvingly in Lowe, Damn Right!
6. Interview with Lee Seeman.
7. Interview with Howard Jessen, a friend of the Buffetts’.
8. His grandfather, a prominent Omaha lawyer, was a friend of Dean Roscoe Pound, the dean of Harvard Law School.
9. Munger made no effort to burnish a résumé by, for example, joining the Law Review. In an interview, he described himself as relatively aloof.
10. Lowe, Damn Right!
11. As quoted in Lowe, Damn Right!
12. Munger, as told to Janet Lowe in Damn Right!
13. In Damn Right!, Munger compared getting married to investing. Nancy said he was “uptight” about showing emotions. His son Charles Jr. said, “There are some things my dad could deal with better if he faced them more” but “he just walks away.”
14. Munger, as quoted in Lowe, Damn Right!
15. Ibid.
16. In Damn Right!, Nancy says that Charlie “was not much of a helpmate around the house.” For her seventieth birthday, Buffett says he went to a pawn shop and got her a Purple Heart.
17. Roger Lowenstein, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
18. Lowe, Damn Right!
19. Interview with Charlie Munger.
20. Interview with Lee Seeman.
21. In a year when the Dow was up 38.5%, Warren had managed to beat it, taking minimal risk.
22. In addition to his $100 stake in Buffett Associates, Buffett had later put $100 into each of his other partnerships: Buffett Fund, B-C, Underwood, Dacee, Mo-Buff, and Glenoff.
23. Interview with Lee Seeman.
24. This version differs from some others that have been published. For example, Susie Buffett has said that she was present. Several writers have set the meeting at a dinner at Johnny’s Café. Roger Lowenstein, however, also set the meeting at the Omaha Club. Most likely, other versions are conflations of later events. To the author, Seeman’s version is the most detailed yet has the least embellished air.
25. Interview with Charlie Munger. The dinner is reconstructed from interviews with Buffett and Munger, whose memories are hazy. Nancy Munger doesn’t remember. The wives were introduced soon after the first meeting, and Johnny’s is the most likely location. Buffett recalls Munger’s self-intoxication clearly.