The cult novel of three desperate prospectors embarking on a perilous quest for gold, and the inspiration for John Huston's classic Oscar-winning film

‘Gold is a very devilish sort of a thing, believe me, boys’

Deep in the wild heart of Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains lies treasure beyond reckoning, just waiting to be found by those who know where to look. Or so believe three Americans – Dobbs, Curtin and Howard – down on their luck and desperate for a way out. Teaming up on a perilous quest to hunt for gold, they soon find their fragile alliance tested, both by a band of local outlaws, and by their own greed. First published in 1927 and made into a classic film by John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a savagely ironic, anarchic cult novel about the price of ambition and the limits of endurance.

B. Traven is coming to be recognized as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century * New York Times Book Review *
Traven's philosophical anarchism, his disengagement, his scorn for regimentation and material goods and his love of individual liberty and the primitive past could, conceivably, command as much reverence form the new generation as does Henry David Thoreau * Los Angeles Times *
Traven tells his story better than the best storytellers; delves deeper into characters than most so-called psychological writers. All the virility, terseness and tension that Hemingway worked so hard for... seem to be Traven's by birthright * Books and Bookmen *
Traven was above all a passionate defender of the victims of society, a man who hated injustice… His books were marvellous affirmations of his faith in the beaten man and his stories were permeated with a great and single-minded vision -- John Huston

Little is known for certain about the life of B. Traven; a prolific writer, he is best known for his beloved adventure novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and the Jungle Novels, a series set during and after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, with proletarian, anarchist themes. During his lifetime, he was variously (and incorrectly) identified as the son of Kaiser Wilhelm I, or a North German brickmaker, but it is now believed that he was born Moritz Rathenau in Germany in 1882, the illegitimate son of Emil Rathenau, the founder of AEG and Helen Mareck, an Irish actress. He lived for some time as Ret Marut, a merchant seaman, actor, journalist and politician, and left Germany in 1923 after having been sentenced to death for his part in the Bavarian Revolution. He arrived in Mexico in 1924, where he dedicated himself to writing full time. Traven married Rosa Elena Luján in 1957 and died in Mexico City in 1969.