Businessman Paul-Loup Sulitzer died at 78

The successful writer and former businessman Paul-Loup Sulitzer died Thursday at the age of 78 in Mauritius where he had lived for several months. « He died this morning at the hospital following a stroke »said his daughter Olivia Sulitzer, adding that her father, a prolific author of politico-financial thrillers, had been hospitalized several days ago after a fall.

His health had been decreased for several years contrasting with the image of dashing businessman who had made his reputation and his success. A notoriety he owed to his novels. When Paul-Loup Sulitzer publishes Moneyin 1980, he was best known as high -volley financial consultant. Money is the first title of his prolific work. Translated in 43 languages, it sells for 2.5 million copies and earns nearly 5 million euros.

The hero of this saga is a certain Franz Cimballi, stripped of his immense fortune received as a legacy. A globetrotter, he walks the planet, thwarts traps, fights his enemies but remains faithful to himself, dissects the secret mechanisms of major financial operations.« Money, And the rest of my novels, aimed precisely to uninhibit money without making it a god, to boast the freedom to undertake. I was tired of the dictatorship of the intelligentsia with regard to financial success. I wanted to speak modernly about capitalism, to be a Balzac who testified to his time »explained, not without ambitions, the author. It will earn him to be presented as the inventor of the “financial western” or the finance-fiction adventure novel. He preferred to define himself as “the writer of the cash” or an “economic novelist”.

Money Above all kicks off the famous “SULITZER system”, which consists in putting the proven techniques of marketing at the service of the sale of books. Throughout his career as a novelist, Paul-Loup Sulitzer will reinvest a good part of his generous people in-Vlaoir and copyright in the advertising of his books, through spots on radio or television. “I wanted to reach the general public like Michael Jackson or Johnny Hallyday », he said.

Franz Cimballi is a bit like the story of “PLS” -nickname of Paul -Loup Sulitzer given by his friends -, who had revenge to take on the spoliation of family fortune. When he was ten years old, his father, Jules Sulitzer, Jewish immigrant businessman from Romania, dies, at fifty-four. “Family problems having deprived us of the inheritance, we found ourselves, my sick mother, my sister and I, without a penny”he will tell later.

At sixteen, PLS leaves school. He became a public works site manager, left in Israel, returns to France where he made a fortune by selling gadgets, including keychain. At twenty -one years old, he is the youngest CEO in France. Literature, he doesn’t think about it yet. He invests in real estate, bought one of the most beautiful villas in Saint-Tropez, becomes a financial consultant both in France and in the United States and in the world. A success worthy of Money.

Cimballi, his hero, we will find him in several novels: Cash, Fortune, Duel in Dallas. We will see it in the cinema, embodied in 1991 in a film. He reappeared in 2010 with the publication of Money 2 and in Chinese rollers (Editions du Rocher). The vein is exploited thoroughly. But the charm has been broken with the public since Bernard Pivot, in 1987, in his program “Apostrophes”, revealed the name of the journalist-writer suspected of being the “pen” of the business novelist. Loup Durand, author of bestsellers, has never really admitted this link. Pls, for his part, has always played the Map of Contempt. “” If it was so simple to take a negro, then there would be a lot of bestsellers in the world. Loup Durand was a friend. It is true that we had trained a very united team. He participated in my books and I in his family »said Pls. After this accusation, The Red Kinghis thriller published in 2008, did not exceed 20,000 copies.

The consecration, if one can say, came from the side of Alain Souchon. In his Song Sentimental Song (1993) – « We are Claudia Schiffer, we are Paul-Loup Sulitzer … Oh, the evil that we can do to us! ”. The singer denounced, through the image of these two stars, the consumer society. “” Alain Souchon has a lot of talent, but he is a poor philosopher. If we were evil, what about AIDS, poverty, violence in the world? ”quipped in its subject. Before adding: “In the end, this song was a good deal for the two of us. She received the Victoires de la Musique’s song award from 1994 and counted a million albums sold. As for me, it made me very strong advertisement. And then, what a joy to be associated with one of the prettiest women in the world. »»

After the immense success of his “economic” novels, Paul-Loup Sulitzer again features the greats of international finance and in particular Soviet bankers in Popov. Then he is interested in Helena Rubinstein, the Queen of Cosmetics, with Hannah. He also publishes tests – Crédit Lyonnais. This bank owes you accounts – and more personal works – SULITZER regime, in which he details the regime which allowed him to lose twenty kilos. In the 2000s, humans experienced costly health problems and divorce. Literary success has slowed down. But he continued to publish. To ward off the fate that had left it, one day, penniless.