TRAVEN, B

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

      1935. FIRST EDITION. TRAVEN, B. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1935. Octavo, original black cloth, uncut, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $6000. Scarce first American edition of Traven's best and most popular novel!"one of the most gripping and uncompromising books ever written"!considered far superior to any preceding edition. Once described as an author who wrote for "people left at the outer edges of the glittering but anguished American dream," the true identity of B. Traven remains one of the 20th century's greatest literary mysteries (Charles Miller, Proletarian Writers of the Thirties). The writer's popular novels and stories have been translated into more than 30 languages, but Traven's true name and nationality remain unknown. He seems to have lived most of his life in Mexico and many of his manuscripts, typed in German, came from there, yet Traven once told his German publishers that his early novels were originally written in English. This novel!"one of the most gripping and uncompromising books ever written! [and] among the great works of modern literature" (Smiley, 249)!was first published in Germany in 1927 as Der Schatze der Sierra Madre. The first English translation saw print in London in 1934, translated by Basil Creighton. This first American edition "is not a translation: Traven wrote it in English, and it shows. The language is richer than in the stilted British edition, and the text runs much longer. Only in the American version will the English-language reader get the story's full impact" (Smiley, 249). John Huston's 1948 film adaptation won three Oscars and critical acclaim for star Humphrey Bogart. Johnson, 324. Sanders, 34. Book with mild foxing; very bright and clean dust jacket expertly restored. A handsome copy.