Cuentos de B. Traven

by B. Traven, R. Cárdenas Barrios (Translator)

Tales of Mexican ranch life and stories based on ancient Indian legends are combined in these writings

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

B. Traven was the pen name of a German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. A rare certainty is that B. Traven lived much of his life in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including his best-known work, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), which was adapted as the Academy Award nominated film of the same name in 1948.
Virtually every detail of Traven's life has been disputed and hotly debated. 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 1924. There are also reasons to believe that Marut/Traven's real name was Otto Feige and that he was born in Schwiebus in Brandenburg, modern day Świebodzin in Poland. B. 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, betraying the socialist and even anarchist sympathies of the writer. B. Traven's best known works include the novels The Death Ship from 1926 and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre from 1927, in 1948 filmed by John Huston, and the so-called Jungle Novels, also known as the Caoba cyclus (from the Spanish word caoba, meaning mahogany), a group of six novels (including The Carreta, Government), published in the years 1930-1939, set among Mexican Indians just before and during the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. B. Traven's novels and short stories became very popular as early as the interwar period and retained this popularity after the war; they were also translated into many languages. Most of B. 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.

Reviews

[Robert Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1961 by Regency books,Evanston,Illinois.
The title is an apt description of B.Traven who was known as “ the man nobody knows “ in this book Traven has presented us with nine stories of lust,death and the strength of the Mexican people,and now on to the stories.
#1 The third guest
Macario meets the Devil,also the Son of God and the Grim Reaper

#2. Burro trading
A Gringo try’s and fails many times to buy a Burro

#3. Tin Cans
Natalio needs a wife and he learns the value of tin cans and a smoking fuse

#4. Midnight call
Bandits call late at night,they need the help of the Gringo Doctor who is not
Really a Doctor
#5. Frustration
Mercedes is getting married in Texas,however the Groom doesn’t show up

#6. When the Priest is not at home
Cripiano is the Priests Sacristan and he will be in charge while the Priest will be
away for six weeks——- a miracle occurs after lightning strikes the Church and
The Vergin Mary saves the Church

#7 Submission
Luisa Bravo is an affluent woman and she doesn’t care to marry any man,she is
Happy and satisfied without a man in her life.
Don Junencio owns a ranch,he is 35 years old and is looking for a wife.
This story is a take on Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew”

#8 Effective Medicine
The Gringo Doctor has to locate the wife of a poor man

#9. Assembly Line
Mr. E.L. Winthrop of New York is on a vacation in the Republic of Mexico and has
a hard time buying baskets.

B.Traven was presumably a German novelist and wrote at least 17 novels,mostly set in Mexico. His name,nationality and place of berth are all subject to dispute,he most certainly lived for many years in Mexico,there are many theories as to who Traven was the most outlandish one being that he was the illegitimate Son of the German Emperor Wilhelm 11
Many of Travens novels have been adapted to the screen,the most famous one being “ The Treasure of The Sierra Madre. In 1948 John Huston was the director and the movie is listed by the American Film Institute at number 38 of the one hundred greatest American films of all time.

In the 1960s I lived in Chicago in the neighborhood of Hyde Park when I purchased this novel at the drug store for the astounding some FIFTY CENTS .I did enjoy reading it however I moved around from hotels and apartments and I lost track of the book————flash forward to about the year of 2004 when my daughter was able to find the book,probably on Amazon at the cost of thirty dollars quite a lot more than fifty cents but it was well worth it.
This is about the fourth time I’ve read this book of short stories and I’d like to recommend it but I don’t know where you would find it.

[Alfredo Olguin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente compilación, si bien me considero fanático de Traven este volumen muestra muy bien una idea general de lo que constituye una época, un modo de vida.

Todo siempre en ese anarquismo crítico característico en todas las obras.