The mystery of B. Traven [Hardcover]

Judy Stone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1977

The only interview ever granted by the man generally assumed to have been B Traven, pseudonymous author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Death Ship and eight Mexican novels. Plus a postscript My Second Thoughts about B. Traven, variously known as Ret Marut, Richard Maurhut, Berick Traven Torsvan and Hal Croves. An unknown Russian sailor adds to the mystery. Second Thoughts was my contribution to an international conference on the author at Penn State University in 1987. It was among the papers published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 1987.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Judy Stone was a film critic and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle for 30 years. She is the author of Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers and has written for the New York Times, The Nation, Ramparts, The Ladies Home Journal and Playgirl on a wide range of subjects. Published profiles include Senator Diane Feinstein, Czeslaw Milosz, Olga Carlisle, Orhan Pamuk, Juan Goytisolo and Yuan-tsung Chen (author of The Dragons Village). Her interview with Rolf Hochhuth was republished in Eric Bentleys collection on The Deputy. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: William Kaufmann, Inc.; 1st edition (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913232327
• ISBN-13: 978-0913232323
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,673,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must-read book, but one that only adds questions, January 24, 2007

By 

Harald Anderson "Living at 78 rpm" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mystery of B. Traven (Paperback)

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the "mystery" of the identity of B. Traven and especially the meta-mystery and the history of the mystery. The book - which is print-on-demand (but is still well made) - is a collection of materials compiled together. Since the materials are poorly edited and repetitive at times, I presume they are Stone's articles for Ramparts - but the volume nowhere gives their origin. The book is a narrative derived from the last and only authorized interviews that Hal Croves gave. The content, alas, is not what one would have hoped for. As I read the book, I kept wondering why a magazine would send an interviewer who spoke no German and had no scholarly understanding of German literature to interview a German author. As a result of this, many of her questions and presuppositions were poorly informed (when I later read Jonah Raskin's book, I understood what Croves' wife meant when she said that Stone would have gotten more if she had just asked the right questions). The newer materials are similarly off-basis - rather than summarizing and addressing the scholarship in the intervening 20 years, Stone puts forth more rumors and romantic dreams. After reading the book, I wondered whether Stone - like Croves' wife - was more interested in proliferating the mysteries than in solving them.