The Night Visitor and Other Stories

Here are ten of B. Traven’s remarkable short stories. Three of them are long stories: The setting of “The Night Visitor” is a hacienda deep in the Mexican bush where a lonely American recreates in his imagination an eerie world of Indian folk legend. “The Cattle Drive” is a vivid description of a cowboy’s trek with a thousand head of cattle across the Mexican plains; it has all the authenticity that Hollywood Westerns lack. “Macario,” which was made into a prize-winning motion picture, is a wry Mexican fable about an Indian woodcutter who makes a compact with the devil to save his family from starvation. Among seven shorter stories, some are based on incidents from contemporary Mexican life, others on ancient Indian folk legends. All have spontaneity, humor, and warmth. “B. Traven is coming to be recognized as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century.” New York Times Book Review.