Carlos Castaneda’s Teachings of Don Juan — published by the University of California as a work of science — told how a naive anthropology student spent five years playing sorcerer’s apprentice to a wily old Mexican Indian, who possessed the wisdom of a Zen master, the agility of a deer, and the powers of a real magician. In ten years Castaneda produced five best-selling books about the amazing don Juan, while scholars turned out scores of articles about the elusive Castaneda, yet all along many doubted whether don Juan even existed.

In Castaneda’s Journey, Richard de Mille asked: Are the don Juan books a hoax? De Mille unmasked the bogus fieldworker but took Castaneda seriously as Trickster-Teacher, a deceptive truth-bringer who taught a new conception of ‘ ‘reality‘ ‘ to millions of readers. The Don Juan Papers asks: What are the costs and benefits of the don Juan hoax? How did Castaneda get away with it? Why did he do it?

In 44 chapters (39 of which have not been published before) some thirty scholars and laymen celebrate or bemoan Castaneda’s influence on social science, philosophy, education, psychotherapy, religion, literature, library science, and private lives. An ‘ ‘Alleglossary‘ ‘ displays two-hundred passages, found in libraries, which furnish certain or likely origins for don Juan’s teachings and Carlos’s adventures. A major biographical portrait offers startling new information about Castaneda and is illustrated by the first good likenesses of him, as child, youth, and man. The Don Juan Papers is for all readers — and non-readers — of Castaneda who wish to understand the most intriguing episode in anthropology since the Piltdown forgery, and its creator, one of the great intellectual hoaxers of all time. We are fortunate it is de Mille who is doing the looking. — American Anthropologist