Scholder, Henry 1948-

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SCHOLDER, Henry 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born January 28, 1948.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, The Permanent Press Publishing Company, 4170 Novac Rd., Sag Harbor, NY 11963.

CAREER:

Writer, financial columnist, institutional broker, and portfolio manager. Chen Capital, former general partner and portfolio manager; Steinhardt Partners, former trader and portfolio manager; Monness Crespi Hardt, currently institutional broker and portfolio manager.

WRITINGS:

The Honorable Correspondent (novel), Permanent Press (Sag Harbor, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Novelist and financial expert Henry Scholder has been characterized as "a scrupulously honest and deeply analytical Wall Street investor," wrote Martin Peretz on the New Republic Online Web site. Similarly, Peretz commented, Scholder is "a scrupulously honest and deeply analytical authority on the region in which he places the intelligence wars about which he writes" in his first novel, The Honorable Correspondent.

Scholder spent his early years in Israel, and has lived and worked in Europe and the Middle East for many years, particularly during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. He saw how little worldwide attention was being paid to a war that ultimately claimed 1.5 million lives, and at the same time how the conflict enriched countries that sold arms to both sides of the conflict. "The Honorable Correspondent is all the more enjoyable for anyone interested in the politics and intrigue of the Middle East," commented Jonathan Schanzer in the Jerusalem Post. "Scholder's work shows a deep understanding of the region, its history, and its peoples." Scholder "particularly seems to understand Lebanon, where much of the book takes place," Schanzer further remarked.

A 1973 assassination in Lebanon ignites the plot of The Honorable Correspondent. Maronite militia leader Claude Harouni is ordered killed by rival Bertrand de Bossier, known as "Bobo." Ten years after the murder, de Bossier has become a leading member of France's counterintelligence organization, the SEDCE. He seeks to enrich France's coffers by entering the area of arms sales and starts a shipping business with his longtime friend, protégé, and fellow counterintelligence member Gaspar Bruyn. When the duo's ship, the Twanee, is sunk in a missile attack, investigative reporter Sarah Tillinghast tightens her search for clues to France's involvement in arms deals with both Iran and Iraq. Along the way, she and Bruyn fall in love, a dangerous proposition for both. Part of the story Tillinghast seeks lies with "Bobo" de Bossier. Another element of the story is found in the reasons behind Bruyn's kidnapping in Beirut soon after he and Sarah arrive on a trip to Lebanon.

The title of the book derives from a French counterintelligence term describing spies who practice their stealthy trade for love of their country rather than for pay or personal gain, noted Sandee Brawarsky in the Jewish Week. As Sarah discovers even greater depths to de Bossier's treachery, Bruyn's role as an honorable correspondent becomes more important to her story and to her attempts to recover him from kidnappers. Brawarsky called the book an "intelligently written novel," while Schanzer commented that Scholder "produces a fine first novel. He often changes tempo, which keeps the pages turning. There are short, heart-pounding chapters of action, as well as some that provide important historical background. Every bit helps to build the web that must later become untangled." Peretz concluded that The Honorable Correspondent transcends the thriller genre and "comes very close to being real literature."