Traven (Bruno Traven in some accounts) was the pen name of a presumably German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. One of the few certainties about Traven's life is that he lived for years in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set. There were many hypotheses on the true identity of B. Traven, some of them wildly fantastic. Most agree that Traven was Ret Marut, a German stage actor and anarchist, who supposedly left Europe for Mexico around 1. There are many good reasons (see below) to believe that Marut/Traven's real name was Otto Feige and that he was born in Schwiebus in Brandenburg, modern day . Traven in Mexico is also connected with Berick Traven Torsvan and Hal Croves, both of whom appeared and acted in different periods of the writer's life. Both, however, denied being Traven and claimed that they were his literary agents only, representing him in contacts with his publishers. B. Traven is the author of twelve novels, one book of reportage and several short stories, in which the sensational and adventure subjects combine with a critical attitude towards capitalism, reflecting the socialist and anarchist sympathies of the writer. Traven's best known works include the novels The Death Ship from 1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre from 1.
Bones: Betty White kehrt in letzter Staffel zur John Huston), and the so- called . The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels (including The Carreta and Government), published in the years 1. Traven's novels and short stories became very popular as early as the interwar period and retained this popularity after the Second World War; they were also translated into many languages. Traven's books were published in German first and their English editions appeared later; nevertheless the author always claimed that the English versions were the original ones and that the German versions were only their translations. This claim is not taken seriously. Las obras de Traven han sido publicadas en al menos 40 idiomas y han sido le Die 1930er Jahre sind vor allem die Zeit, in der Traven den Caoba-Zyklus schuf. Er besteht aus sechs Romanen, die in der Zeit 1931–1939 herausgegeben wurden: Der. Traven implica el riesgo de lo incierto. Su viuda (finada en M Vorw. Traven's first short story and his first novel were published (front page of the first issue of the newspaper from 1. The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1. Berlin daily Vorw. Soon, it also published Traven's first novel, Die Baumwollpfl. The expanded book edition was published in 1. Berlin- based Buchmeister publishing house, which was owned by the left- leaning, trade unions affiliated book sales club. B. The title of the first book edition was Der Wobbly, a common name for members of the anarcho- syndicalisttrade union. Industrial Workers of the World; in later editions the original title Die Baumwollpfl. In the book, Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven's other works his name is also Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. The main character of the novel is again Gerald Gale, a sailor who, having lost his documents, also virtually forfeits his identity, the right to normal life and home country and, consequently, is forced to work as a stoker's helper in extremely difficult conditions on board a . The novel is an accusation of the greed of capitalist employers and bureaucracy of officials who deport Gale from the countries where he is seeking refuge. In the light of findings of Traven's biographers, The Death Ship may be regarded as a novel with autobiographical elements. Traven is identical with the revolutionary Ret Marut, there is a clear parallel between the fate of Gale and the life of the writer himself, devoid of his home country, who might also have been forced to work in a boiler room of a steamer on a voyage from Europe to Mexico. The action of the book is again set in Mexico, and its main characters are a group of American adventurers and gold seekers. In 1. 94. 8 the book was filmed under the same title (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) by the Hollywood director John Huston. The film, starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston, was a great commercial success, and in 1. Academy Awards. In the novel, Traven first dealt in detail with the question of the Indians living in America and with the differences between Christian and Indian cultures in Latin America; these problems also dominated his later Jungle Novels. Traven's most extensive book The White Rose (Die Wei. The novels describe the life of Mexican Indians in the state of Chiapas in the early 2. Mexican Revolution. Traven practically stopped writing longer literary forms, publishing only short stories, including the novella or Mexican fairy tale Macario, which was originally written in English but first published in German in 1. The story, whose original English title was The Healer, was honored by The New York Times as the best short story of the year in 1. Macario was made into a film by Mexican director Roberto Gavald. The subject and the language of the novel, which were completely different from the writer's other works, resulted in its rejection for a long time by publishers who doubted Traven's authorship; the novel was also accused of being . The book was only accepted after its thorough stylistic editing by Johannes Sch. Doubts about Aslan Norval remain and exacerbate the problems of the writer's identity and the true authorship of his books. Traven also authored many short stories, some of which remain unpublished. Besides the already mentioned Macario, the writer adapted the Mexican legend about The Creation of the Sun and the Moon (Sonnen- Sch. The first collection of Traven's short stories, entitled Der Busch, appeared in 1. From the 1. 94. 0s onwards many of his short stories also appeared in magazines and anthologies in different languages. The book, published by B. It has not been translated into English. Themes in B. Traven's writings can be best described as . They tell about exotic travels, outlaw adventurers and Indians; many of their motifs can also be found in Karl May's and Jack London's novels. Unlike much of adventure or Western fiction, Traven's books, however, are not only characterized by a detailed description of the social environment of their protagonists but also by the consistent presentation of the world from the perspective of the . Traven's characters are drawn commonly from the lower classes of society, from the proletariat or lumpenproletariat strata; they are more antiheroes than heroes, and despite that they have this primal vital force which compels them to fight. The hero's rejection of his degrading living conditions frequently serves as motive and broad emphasis is placed upon the efforts of the oppressed to liberate themselves. Apart from that, there are virtually no political programmes in Traven's books; his clearest manifesto may be the general anarchist demand . Professional politicians, including ones who sympathize with the left, are usually shown in a negative light, if shown at all. Despite this, Traven's books are par excellence political works. Although the author does not offer any positive programme, he always indicates the cause of suffering of his heroes. This source of suffering, deprivation, poverty and death is for him capitalism, personified in the deliberations of the hero of The Death Ship as Caesar Augustus Capitalismus. Dressing his novels in the costume of adventure or western literature, the writer seeks to appeal to the less educated, and first of all to the working class. In his presentation of oppression and exploitation, Traven did not limit himself to the criticism of capitalism; in the centre of his interest there were rather racial persecutions of Mexican Indians. These motifs, which are mainly visible in the Jungle Novels, were a complete novelty in the 1. Most leftist intellectuals, despite their negative attitude to European and American imperialism, did not know about, or were not interested in persecutions of natives in Africa, Asia or South America. Traven deserves credit for drawing public attention to these questions, long before anti- colonial movements and struggle for emancipation of black people in the United States. Traven submitted his works himself or through his representatives for publication from Mexico to Europe by post and gave a Mexican post office box as his return address. The copyright holder named in his books was . Traven, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Neither the European nor the American publishers of the writer ever met him personally or, at least, the people with whom they negotiated the publication and later also the filming of his books always maintained they were only Traven's literary agents; the identity of the writer himself was to be kept secret. This reluctance to offer any biographical information was explained by B. Traven in words which were to become one of his best- known quotations: The creative person should have no other biography than his works. Traven knew that values like credibility and authenticity were effective criteria in the literary matters he dealt with and that he needed to consider them. Above all, his performance was self- fulfilment, and after that the creation of an artist. Even as Ret Marut he played parts on stage but also in the stalls and in real life, so he equipped and coloured them with adequate and fascinating stories of personal descent till they became a spleeny mixture of self- discovery, self- invention, performance and masquerade. It seems indisputable that Traven. This turned into a trap because he was no longer able to expose his true vita without appearing as a show- off. Traven remained a mysterious figure. Literary critics, journalists and others were trying to discover the author's identity and were proposing more or less credible, sometimes fantastic hypotheses. Ret Marut theory. Traven's identity was the German journalist, writer and anarchist Erich M.
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