BROOKS, John (1920-1993). Business Adventures. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1969.

BROOKS, John (1920-1993). Business Adventures. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1969.

First edition of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates's favorite book about business, inscribed by the author. Business Adventures compiles Brooks's New Yorker articles from the 1960s into a single volume, and chapters include the classic profile "Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox;" "The Impacted Philosophers," which looks at the 1961 case of price-fixing at General Electric; and the "Fate of Edsel," an examination of why the Ford Motor Company's flagship car flopped in 1958. In a 2014 blog post, Gates closes a lengthy homage: "Business Adventures is as much about the strengths and weaknesses of leaders in challenging circumstances as it is about the particulars of one business or another. In that sense, it is still relevant not despite its age but because of it. John Brooks’s work is really about human nature, which is why it has stood the test of time." This copy is inscribed and signed by the author on the front endpaper, "To Ralph and Maria, affectionately, John."

Octavo, 232 x 150mm. Publisher's black cloth, illustrated dust-jacket (minor wear to extremities, very slight fading to red spine).