The Secret of Sierra Madre: The Man Who Was B. Traven

by Will Wyatt

Penetrates the mystery that has surrounded the life of the noted novelist, revealing the adventures that took him from the stage to a revolution and from prison to a hut in the Mexican jungle

Genres: Biography

369 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, maybe not the world's best treatment, still a very interesting book. This book assumes too much at the beginning; it assumes that its reader is already familiar with the "common knowledge" that is the "B. Traven Mystery," and "that's all been gone over." Since I had never actually heard about this asshole until I picked up this book, I found that rather tedious and in-jokey and that slowed my going in this book. But once you get past that, it's such an interesting mystery that it all works out.

The short version: B. Traven was a mysterious writer living in Mexico who wrote numerous left-leaning, semi-socialist adventure novels. The most popular of these was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, on which John Huston based his screenplay. From the start, nobody knew who Traven really was, and rumors about him circulated. He was the illegitimate son of Kaiser Wilhelm, he was German, he was American, he was a criminal on the run, he was Jack London, who hadn't really died when he was supposed to have died but was living on in secret writing as B. Traven. Some of his first books were published in German in Germany, but Traven "himself" claimed that he was an American living in Mexico; his early publications had been in German because he couldn't get them published in English, and so he rewrote them in German, a language he knew because he had spent some time in Germany. There were other indications, though, that Traven was really of German or maybe Polish origin. There were some indications that Traven might be a German anarchist, Ret Marut, who disappeared following the Bavarian revolution after World War I.

The best candidate for Traven was Traven's "agent" Hal Croves, who served as the "consultant" on the film of Sierra Madre, and John Huston seemed to think that Croves was Traven, and then later to doubt it. Harlan Ellison edited an early book of unpublished Traven stories, and had a variety of suspicions about what the answer to the mystery was. The other candidate was a guy named Torsvan, who also claimed to be an American by birth despite witnesses claiming he had a German accent. both explicitly denied being Traven. Croves's Mexican wife said Croves was Traven, but there was still some doubt because of documentary evidence to the contrary.

The author of THIS volume set out to track down the real identity of Traven; apparently there were a number of other books that went before him, as well as many magazine articles in Britain, the US and Germany (from which the Kaiser Wilhelm theory originated).

SPOILER ALERT -- In the end, Will Wyatt concludes not only that Torsvan was Croves (pretty obvious) and both were Traven (not quite as obvious, but still a pretty strong argument) but that this/these men/man were/was Ret Marut, an anarchist writer who fled Germany following the Bavarian uprising and was then deported from Britain.

Wyatt concludes there's not much evidence for Marut (therefore Traven/Torsvan/Croves) being the son of Kaiser Wilhelm, but frankly I'm not sure I'm with him on that one -- the circumstantial evidence is just too bloody weird to dismiss.

But Wyatt does track down what he believes to be the guy's probable birthplace and family members in, of all places, Poland (in a town that was part of the German Empire at the time of Traven's/Marut's birth), more or less eliminating all the circumstantial evidence of Marut being the son of the Kaiser -- if you buy the Poland theory.

It's far from the end of the mystery, but since I had no f*$#!!ing idea there was a mystery until I picked up this book, it all comes out in the wash.

Sound fascinating? It is. Sound engaging? It ain't.

The mystery is a fun diversion and illuminative of secret history -- but this book is a plod, its arguments proving just too literal-minded, its detailed investigative descriptions too boring and its language and pacing too dated (it was written in 1980) to grab readers expecting the more smoothly-pureed and readable social histories for the general public that make an afternoon's reading for the casual braniac.

So... four stars for content, but don't bother with it unless you're a major pulp fiction nerd or are completely obsessed with historical mysteries -- and have lots of patience.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember exactly when I read it, but it is an outstanding piece of journalism and writing. It is exciting in its very mysterious content and pursuit of the truth. How close we came to never having Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and what a shame it would have been, too.

My mom has the book now, but it still stares at me whenever I visit. It's terrific. I keep my eye out for more Will Wyatt works.

[Len · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only know B. Traven because The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of my dad's favourite movies and I have never read any of his books. So the search for his true identity was never going to be a fascinating topic for me and I imagine that is much the same for many people, both when the original BBC television documentary was broadcast and when this book was published in 1980.

The author's research may well have uncovered previously hidden truths, though there has never been a shortage of experts to dispute them, and Traven had lived through a fascinating life of adventure and achievement but, then again, perhaps the research was faulty and Traven was no more than a chancer and imaginative raconteur.

As Wyatt describes his work he is convincing. Traven was the son of Adolf, a German potter and brickmaker, and his wife Frederika, a millworker in a carpet factory. After the First World War he became a left wing political activist and journalist, was wanted by the police but eventually escaped to Mexico by way of Canada and England, and in Mexico began to write his politically inspired adventure novels. However, all researchers will want to make their research sound convincing perhaps by missing out contrary evidence or cherry picking from the records. Who knows? Wyatt's theories are certainly interesting and they may be correct but I don't know if they constitute proof.

On page 84 of the UK hardback edition Wyatt mentions that a member of the BBC production team with him in Mexico making the documentary was Dave Myers. I'm sure that it's the Dave Myers who is now one of the Hairy Bikers (a very popular UK television cookery team), though that one did work for the BBC. He would have been in his early twenties then and surely would not have had a “laconic manner and an aura of having knocked around the world.” However, Wyatt goes on to say that his “vague verbal communication could be sharpened up when stale food was served in a restaurant.” If they are one and the same Dave Myers then that is the most interesting and incontrovertible fact in the book.

[Delway Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wyatt did a documentary on B. Traven for the BBC. Traven's life proves that truth can be stranger than fiction. He is the rare author whose work, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, was made into a better movie - an absolute classic.

[Meleya]

Nice real life mystery. Good read and finally the mystery is solved.