SSuubbjjeecctt PPllaaccee KKeeyy--TTooppiiccss DDOOII:: TTrraavveenn,, BB SSCCOOTTTT HEENKKEELL LLiitteerraattuurree » AAmmeerriiccaann LLiitteerraattuurree AAmmeerriiccaass eemmiiggrraattiioonn , rraaddiiccaalliissmm, ssoocciiaall cchhaannggee 10.1111/b.9781405192446.2011.x B. Traven is the most common nom de plume for the author who also used the names Ret Marut, Hal Croves, and Traven Torsvan, among others. Traven's works include The Death Ship (11992266), which is rumored to be the book Albert Einstein would have taken to a desert island; the six Jungle Novels (1931–40); and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), later adapted into John Huston's 1948 film starring Humphrey Bogart. Traven's line, delivered by a Mexican rebel to Bogart's character, Dobbs, is one of the most famous in American film: “Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!” Like his rebel character, Traven's ideas place him in a dissenting literary tradition, and his secrecy makes him an archetype of the reclusive, wandering American author. Scholars assume that Traven was born in Chicago in 1890, immigrated to Germany and participated in the 1918–9 Bavarian revolution, and, after the Bavarian republic was suppressed, escaped from a death sentence for treason. Traven then lived in Mexico until his death in 1969. Traven's legendary secrecy, however, means that no detail of his biography is beyond debate. As the editor of the German journal Der Ziegelbrenner (The Brick Burner – one who makes material to build a new world), he delivered public readings from behind a darkened lectern. Traven misled journalists and aspiring biographers, and argued that his writing should get attention, not his biography. Traven wrote 15 novels, many short stories, and one work of nonfiction about Chiapas, Mexico, Land des Frülings (Land of Springtime) (1928). Traven's first editions appeared in German and have been translated into more than 30 languages. Traven's content is also international: his characters are American drifters, European workers, and Mexican campesinos. Because so many tattered copies of Traven's works can be found in Mexico, Rudolfo Anaya writes that “B. Traven is alive and well in Cuernavaca.” German, Mexican, and American scholars all claim Traven for their national literatures. BBiibblliiooggrraapphhiicc DDeettaaiillss TThhee EEnncyccllooppeeddiiaa ooff TTwweennttiieetthh--CCeennttuurryy FFiiccttiioonn EEddiitteedd bbyy:: Brian W. Shaffer eeIISSBBNN:: 9781405192446 PPrriinntt ppuubblliiccaattiioonn ddaattee:: 2011 Traven, B : The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction : W... http://www.literatureencyclopedia.com/subscriber/uid=6585/to... 1 of 3 10/30/15, 10:26 PM