B Traven

B. Traven 1890-1969, German language novelist. During his life Traven refused to divulge any information concerning himself. His birth name is still uncertain, as is his birthplace. As Ret Marut he was involved in Communist uprisings in Germany after World War I. In the 1920s he moved to Mexico, where he lived for the remainder of his life, assuming the name B. Traven. On his passport, he claimed his given name was Berick Traven Torsvan, though this is now thought to have been another subterfuge. His novels are often set in exotic locations and usually treat exploiters and those they exploit. Among his works are The Death Ship (1926, tr. 1934), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927, tr. 1935), The Rebellion of the Hanged (1934, tr. 1952), and The Night Visitors (tr. 1966).

Traven, B. (?1882–1969), novelist and short story writer, whose first stories (The Cottonpickers) appeared in German in Berlin in 1925. His successful novel The Death Ship (1925) recounts the wanderings of an American seaman after the First World War, bereft of passport and nationality. Traven, whose identity remained for many years shrouded in mystery, went to Mexico in the 1920s, whence appeared some 12 novels and collections of stories, including The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1934) filmed by John Huston in 1947. The Man who was B. Traven (1980) by W. Wyatt established that he was Albert Otto Max Feige, later known as Ret Marut, born in Swiebodzin, a Polish town then in Germany.