Death Ship

1934. First Edition. TRAVEN, B. The Death Ship. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2300.First American (preferred) edition of B. Traven's gripping first novel, the first to be translated into English by the author, in original dust jacket.The mysterious author B. Traven first published this work in Germany in 1925 as Das Totenschiff. It appeared in an English version translated by Eric Sutton (also in 1934), but this first American edition, to which Traven himself contributed the translation as well as revisions, is considered superior. This politically charged novel—in which the narrator, who has lost his passport, finds himself unable to settle in any country and thus compelled to work on the titular ""death ship""—remains particularly relevant in our age of refugees and ""illegal"" immigrants seeking work. The Death Ship is Traven's first major success, and most popular novel after The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Book near-fine, with a touch of rubbing to lower rear corner. Scarce original dust jacket with a bit of dust soiling, minor archival tape reinforcement to verso along folds, extremely good.