B. Traven won instant fame in 1926 when the newly founded book club of the German Printers Union, Büchergilde Gutenberg, published Das Totenschiff: Die Geschichte eines amerikanischen Seemanns (translated as The Death Ship, 1934). It was a story of outcasts on a ship condemned to sink in the next storm, a story both realistic and romantic both pessimistic and full of vibrant vitality. It was a story betraying leftist leanings and intense empathy with the suffering lower classes, but at the same time revealing his decidedly individualistic, even anarchistic bent. This and his other early books made Traven, like Jack London, a favorite author of young readers, and one of the models for German and European proletarian literature.

Readers, critics, and the media were intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the identity of the elusive author. His manuscripts came from Mexico, with post office box return addresses. Biographical inquiries...