Walrus Publishing, an imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group, announces The Poison Tree, written by Henry I. Schvey, will be published September 6, 2016. The Poison Tree is available for pre-order at retailers and online in paperback for $15.95 and as en e-book for $9.99. The Poison Tree is a tragicomic memoir of Schvey’s father, an illumination of the secret life of a man who was powerful, respected, and greatly feared. In the telling, the son and the readers grapple with a universal question—are we destined to become what are parents were or can we “re-shape our lives” according to our own design?
Schvey grew up in New York as his father rose to the pinnacle of success in the Reagan era of dog-eat-dog global finance, eventually becoming Vice-President and Chairman of the Bond Funds Division at Merrill Lynch. But his father’s success was paid for with the currency of intimidation. He wore it with the braggadocio of a man with an out-sized ego who didn’t care who he stepped on to get to the top—including his son. As A.E. Hotchner the noted writer and playwright notes in his review, “The Poison Tree is a tantalizing coming-of-age memoir that painstakingly recalls the joys and pains of a boy’s passage into celebrated manhood.”
Mr. Schvey will be promoting his work in St. Louis, MO where he is a respected professor of Drama and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. His schedule includes personal appearances, readings, presentations, and other events in and around St. Louis and in his hometown of New York City.
About the Author
Henry I. Schvey was born in New York City, and attended Hunter College Elementary School and the Horace Mann School for Boys. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he received an MA in Western European Studies and a PhD in Comparative Literature at Indiana University. He worked in the Netherlands for fourteen years, during which time he taught at Leiden University and founded the Leiden English Speaking Theatre (LEST). He, his wife, and three children returned to the U.S. in 1987, where he became chair of the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis. He stepped down as chair in 2007, but has continued to teach, direct, and write as Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature. Find out more about Schvey by connecting with him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/HenryISchvey/)