Who was B. Traven?

• Author: Contreras, Jaime Perales
• Position: LITERATURE - Essay

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Ret Marut, Traven Torsvan, and Hal Croves are the three names most associated with the literary mystery, B. Traven. Ambitious investigative journalists sought after the millionaire writer for years. Was he German? Polish? North American? Mexican? Detectives, lawyers, journalists and academics all furiously dispute who it was that first discovered the true identity of this eccentric storyteller. Even today, 40 years after his presumed death (1969), doubts remain about who B. Traven really was.

Less complicated that Malcolm Lowry and more fun than Grallam Greene and D.H. Lawrence put together, Traven's stories are powerfully addictive, vigorous infusions of adrenaline. These books--which have sold more than 25 million copies and been translated into 30 languages--are the only tangible testaments that B. Traven existed at all.

His most well known work, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , was made into a movie by John Huston starring Humphrey Bogart. It won three Oscars in 1948 (for best director, script, and supporting actor), and Stanley Kubrick identified it as one of the ten films he would like to have if he was stranded on a desert island (a desert island with electricity and a movie projector, of course). Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia and Boogie Nights ), confessed that he was watching The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as he was drafting his last film, There Will be Blood .

Mexican journalist Luis Suárez is one of those who believes that he was the only one to actually interview Traven. According to Suárez, Traven met Humphrey Bogart at a pool resort in San José Puruá, Michoacan where they were both working on editing the movie, which was filmed entirely in Mexico. He appeared on the set, however, as Hal Croves, Traven's literary agent. Once the work was concluded, Croves disappeared from the resort and Bogart never saw him again.

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In the same year that The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was filmed (1948), Mexican novelist Luis Spota took it upon himself to find out who B. Traven was. Spota discovered that the novelist lived almost year-round in a guesthouse in Acapulco and that he received his mail at a post office box located just a few blocks away. Luis Spota then travelled to Acapulco with his camera and, playing the role of today's hated paparazzi, managed to snap a good picture of him when he went to pick up his mail. He discovered that the person in the photo...