WAS THE published under the pen name of Traven. TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE WRITTEN Twenty five to thirty million copies have sold IN NEW ORLEANS? in over two hundred different editions. The author of these books from the very beginning or declared that he would divulge no details of his private life. The books belonged to the public, B. Traven and Other Famous Creoles but his personal life belonged to him alone. And when Warners insisted that there must be a complete valid signature on the legal The great American film director John contract of the sale of the book’s rights… they Huston chose The Treasure of the Sierra had to make do with the simple name: B. Madre as his second film following the success Traven. of his directorial debut in The Maltese Falcon. The man who wrote under this assumed Warner Brothers bought the rights to the book name never wanted publicity of any sort. The in 1941 but the war years intervened and it reasons he gave are cogent and reasonable wasn’t until 1948 that the public would first enough and actually not all that unusual. J. D. see Bogart’s interpretation of the Traven Salinger and Thomas Pynchon come to mind character Fred C. Dobbs. Or hear Alfonzo as recent examples of other writers who have Bedoya say: “I don’t have to show you no wished to maintain a measure of privacy. stinkin’ badges!” One imagines that Traven was pleased It is significant that this eminently with the prospect of having one of his books American film maker should choose a Traven made into a film starring Hollywood’s top actor vehicle to direct immediately after bringing and directed by a celebrated film maker. But, as The Maltese Falcon to the screen, as it helps to he wrote Huston, “There is no greater joy and place Traven in the tradition of hard boiled satisfaction for me as to be unknown as a American writing and the movie as film noir. writer. Only this way can I be myself and have In the 1940s Bogart defined those genres on no obligation to act up. Only this way I can say film, giving performances from books by what I really wish to say without being Dashiell Hammett, Hemingway, Raymond reminded by some high-stuffed or high-brow Chandler and B. Traven in quick succession. that a writer of such a great reputation William Faulkner contributed to the shouldn’t talk so silly.” screenplays of both the Hemingway and Traven first published his works in Chandler productions. Germany in 1925 where he was immensely The Treasure of the Sierra Madre won popular. He wrote about vagabond workers three Academy Awards and is considered one stuck out somewhere in a foreign country, or of the great movies of all time. The film is in so about the travails of sailors stranded in Europe many ways quintessentially American and yet without their passports. Later he wrote about today, over sixty years later, no one knows the oppressed workers and the machinations of anything certain about the author of the Big Capitalism, curiously from the point of original novel. We don’t know his real name, view of an insider. what country he was born in or when, or what Traven found a ready audience especially language he spoke. among the organized Socialist workers in Between 1925 and 1940 a dozen or so Germany. As the political climate changed his novels and books of short stories were books were burned by the Nazis and his © Peter Wood. All rights reserved. 1 | Page millions of German readers were thereafter certainly the most important person involved denied access to his work as Traven lost his with the controversy surrounding Traven. largest audience. Huston was an old Mexican hand, traveling Much has been made of the fact that there for the first time at the tender age of Traven first published in Germany, and his nineteen. He was an astute judge of character admiring readers there naturally wished to and an artist of exceptionally fine sensibilities. claim him as one of their own. This fact forms Huston was impressed that Croves was one of the basic arguments that Traven was very familiar with Traven’s books and hired actually a German or Austrian. him as an adviser on the film at a small weekly However, Ernest Hemingway, when he was salary. Soon the film crew became suspicious having difficulty finding a publisher elsewhere, that this man was actually the mysterious also published some early works in Germany, author himself. With every denial and protest in the magazine Der Quershnitt. In a passage that he was merely the representative of the in ‘The Green Hills of Africa’ he admits to author, the crew members became more being the Hemingway published in Germany convinced that Croves himself was the man when asked by a German ex patriot, and a long who wrote the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It and beautiful discussion ensues about the is, by the way, to his lasting credit, that for his problems of writing in America. entire life, and under all kinds of pressures to After selling the film rights for Treasure to admit otherwise, Hal Croves would Warners, Traven realized that his desire for consistently deny to be the author of those privacy would be seriously threatened in the books. wake of a major Hollywood publicity campaign. Huston didn’t care if he was the writer or Even more so as the film was to star not. But as time went on he came to the Hollywood’s biggest box office draw Humphrey decision that this little, humble, poorly dressed Bogart. If he wished to continue to maintain writer’s agent was exactly what he claimed to his privacy Traven knew that he would have to be. For Huston, Traven was a man of bigger devise a plan. To keep the publicity hounds off and grander sensibilities. A raconteur who his trail he presented the world with a classic lived life large, not a shy closed mouth reticent red herring in the form of a man called Hal man like Croves. Croves. John Huston was well experienced at taking the measure of a man. He had enjoyed * an extensive correspondence with Traven during the long interval from 1941, when The world first hears of Hal Croves when Warner Brothers purchased the book rights, he shows up one morning in film director until the filming began when he first meets Hal Huston’s hotel room in Mexico City with a Croves. letter from Traven authorizing him as Traven’s In his autobiography, An Open Book he representative in all matters pertaining to the writes: “Croves gave an impression quite unlike filming of the book The Treasure of the Sierra the one I had formed of Traven from reading Madre. his scripts and correspondence. Croves was Anyone wishing to discover the true very tight and guarded in his manner of authorship of The Treasure and other Traven speaking. He was nothing at all as I had works must first deal with John Huston. He is imagined Traven, and after two meetings I one of the Twentieth Century’s Titans and decided that this surely was not he.” © Peter Wood. All rights reserved. 2 | Page Huston maintained an active interest in war; was slated for high position in Denmark; the question of Traven’s identity for the left against father’s opposition (did not want to remainder of his life but never wavered in his sit at a desk and run a factory); had all sorts of belief that he was not Croves. rough times; sold gasoline at a street stand in In 1969, after Croves’ death, a great deal Mexico etc. - all to get into Middle American was written supposedly proving beyond a doubt archaeology. Now has made good and has it on that he was Traven. Huston, not wishing to his father… Blom counts his friends in the create a scandal by challenging Croves’ widow Legations crowd; always stays with Archie as a liar, refrained from too many public Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. Knows young Frick expressions of his doubts. By this time the well, and reports him as very keen on our Traven estate was worth a considerable amount subjects.” of money as there had developed an enormous In this single letter we can find all of the resurgence of interest in Traven among the astonishing contrasts inherent in both Frans young rebels and radicals of the 1960s. Blom and the author who wrote under the Amusingly, Huston returns to the name of B. Traven. What sort of man could on question of Traven’s identity some hundred the one hand be friends of a member of the pages later in his autobiography when he is Frick family, one of America’s wealthiest; speak writing about working with Ray Bradbury on five languages; stay in Oyster Bay, one of the the film Moby Dick: countries grandest mansion strewn swaths of “Ray was the best argument I know of for real estate on Long Island with Archie those who believe that Hal Croves was B. Roosevelt, a World War 1 hero and son of Traven. Highly original in his writing, from the President Theodore Roosevelt; and yet also be idea itself to the very turn of a sentence, in having “all sorts of rough times” and be selling casual intercourse Ray spoke entirely in clichés gasoline on a street corner in Mexico? Surely and platitudes. This man, who sent people on the life of Frans Blom is worth our further exploratory flights to the distant stars, was interest.