B. Traven wrote twelve novels, an anthropological study of the Mexican state of Chiapas, and innumerable novellas and short stories. His works have been published in more than 1500 editions in more than forty languages, with more than 40 million sold around the world. No less popular have been film and television adaptations of his books, which include classics in three languages, such as Treasure of the Sierta Madre (1948), which was awarded three Oscars, Macario (1960), the first Mexican movie to be nominated for an Oscar, and Das Totenschiff (1959), a cult classice in Germany.

Born in Germany in 1882, Traven began his career in Germany under the name of Ret Marut as a merchant seaman, actor, director, writer, journalist and politician. He left Germany in 1923, and arrived in Mexico in 1924. In Mexico, he dedicated himself to writing fulltime under the name of B. Traven, and his first novels, the Death Ship and the Cottonpickers were published in 1926. He was  also a talented photographer and skilled writer of screenplays for his novels and short stories.

He was naturalized a Mexican citizen in 1951, and married Rosa Elena Luján, his translator and agent, in 1957. He died in Mexico City in 1969, leaving his Estate to his wife and his two stepdaughters.