
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Warren Buffett's youthful confidence about his business acumen hid a self-doubt about nearly everything else, yet the son of a Nebraska congressman grew into one of the world's greatest investors.
The tale of how the brilliant but needy Buffett built a fortune by investing in undervalued companies is recounted in the first authorized biography of the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Associated Press obtained an audio version of the book Friday, ahead of its Sept. 29 release.
The book's author, former insurance analyst Alice Schroeder, writes that when Buffett was a newlywed in his early 20s, he relied on his wife Susan to help cut his hair, stock the pantry and help him deal with other people.
"In every area of life except business, Susie was discovering her husband was riddled with self-doubt," Schroeder wrote. "He had never felt love, and she saw, he did not feel lovable."
The new book, "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," goes on to explain how Susan Buffett left Warren Buffett in 1977 and moved to San Francisco. But the couple never divorced before her death in 2004, even though he lived with another woman most of those years.
Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, in a private ceremony on his 76th birthday in 2006.
Some of the information in Schroeder's book is new, but much of it will seem familiar to Buffett's legions of