B. Traven

(c. 1890 - 1969)

In 1917 a German former actor calling himself Ret Marut founded the anarchist journal Der Ziegelbrenner and two years later took part in a failed communist uprising in Bavaria. He was captured and sentenced to death, but he escaped and fled to Mexico; after he died, his widow claimed that he had “lived something like ten lives.” Many believe that he began publishing under the name B. Traven, whose novels allude to the small towns in Mexico where Marut is known to have lived.