SOURCE: "To Carlos Castaneda, Wherever You Are," in New York Times, June 27, 1998, p. A15.

[In the following obituary, Thompson, an author, discusses the trickster role Castaneda played.]

When I heard that the coroner's certificate listed his occupation as Beverly Hills schoolteacher. I was amused. But I wasn't surprised. Why shouldn't rumors about Carlos Castaneda's death be as exaggerated as his life?

Castaneda's death was reported a week ago, two months after it occurred. He is likely to be credited, in his footnote in history, as one of the most notorious, charming and unapologetic tricksters of the century. Which is why I'll never know for sure whether the Carlos I met that day five years ago was him, or rather some Carlos-not.

Castaneda had agreed to sit for an interview, for Paris Review. The editor, George Plimpton, said that as far as he knew it would be the legendary...