Very near fine in a like dustjacket. Hardcover first edition - New York:: Methuen,, (1980). Hardcover first edition -. Very near fine in a like dustjacket.. First printing. Rather than a biography of B. Traven, the reclusive author best known for 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' this is an attempt to unearth his identity, He died in 1969 in Mexico City where he had been living under the name of Hal Croves. Raskin had been invited by Traven's widow to come to Mexico and write his biography; he lived in her house for a year gathering material but the essential mystery of who he had been still remained. Newspaper articles laid in. 249 pp.