SOURCE: "Octavio Paz, Mexico's Literary Giant, Dead at 84," in New York Times, April 21, 1998.

[In the following obituary, Kandell concentrates on diverse literary and cultural influences that shaped Paz's writings, detailing various controversies prompted by his views.]

Octavio Paz, Mexico's premier poet and essayist and one of the towering men of letters in the second half of this century, died on Sunday at a temporary residence in Mexico City. He was 84.

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announced the death on Monday as he was returning from the Summit of the Americas in Chile. "This is an irreplaceable loss for contemporary thought and culture—not just for Latin America but for the entire world," Zedillo was quoted as saying by the government news agency Notimex.

Zedillo did not give a cause of death or say when Paz died. Last year, Paz said that he was suffering from a disease that was...