Where To Start With B. Traven?

Sierra Madre? Death Ship? Mahogany/Jungle novels? One of the various bios: Who Was B. Traven? Who Exactly Was B. Traven? Who Was Really B. Traven? Who Really Was B. Traven? Read nothing and leave the mystery intact?

Should have made this a poll.

Seems like most of his books are still in print.

Read this a while back which seemed to mine similar territory.
http://www.bookgasm.com/wp-content/images//0843953586.jpg
Got off to a good start but than ran out of steam.

Steering clear of Aslan Norval, which I assume is some kind of eighth Narnia book.

There's this story he did that's in a fantasy anthology co-edited by Borges that's really good. Something about meeting death and sharing a chicken with him and then getting an unpredictable power that can heal people, but not all of the time.

And my old boss's mom says to read The Death Ship and The Kidnapped Saint. I haven't done so yet.

The biography I have is sort of an academic overview of various sources and accounts, but I don't know where it is right now. I think any biography of him would be interesting.

I started with The Death Ship, mainly because it was the first novel of his I found a cheap reading copy of. Starting there worked fine for me. It has almost no plot, but it is a powerful book nonetheless - especially if you've done scut work.

The next one I was able to lay hands on was Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which resembles the film, but contains much more and starts at an earlier point in the story. It is an ace book, but if you've seen the movie already it might not be the best place to start, as you will be making too many mental comparisons between the two.

I have poked around in his other books, but I do not have any recommendations there, as I have too tenuous a memory of them.

There's this story he did that's in a fantasy anthology

There's this story he did that's in a fantasy anthology co-edited by Borges that's really good. Something about meeting death and sharing a chicken with him and then getting an unpredictable power that can heal people, but not all of the time.

This sounds FANTASTIC!

I've only read Sierra Madre, but that seems a pretty excellent starting point.