# William Powell, ‘Anarchist Cookbook’ Writer, Dies at 66

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 29, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110 "2017-06-29T02:16:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110/1 "2017-06-29T02:16:29Z")

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This is a couple of months old but I didn’t see a thread on it. I just watched a documentary about him. Interesting stuff.

> **[William Powell, ‘Anarchist Cookbook’ Writer, Dies at 66 (Published 2017)](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/arts/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies.html)**
>
> The author was an angry teenager when he began research on the book, which outlined weapon use, bomb-building techniques and drug manufacturing.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110/2 "2017-06-29T02:34:22Z")

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> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> This is a couple of months old but I didn’t see a thread on it. I just watched a documentary about him. Interesting stuff.
> 
> [https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/arts/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies.html](https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/arts/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies.html)

The article is a few months old, but he died almost a year ago. They sort of buried the lead on that one, but the date is mentioned about midway through the column.

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**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110/3 "2017-06-29T02:38:12Z")

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didn’t he say at one point he wished he never wrote it and it was irresponsible for it publishers to keep publishing it ?

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-powell-anarchist-cookbook-writer-dies-at-66/790110/4 "2017-06-29T03:37:44Z")

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I can highly recommend the documentary film [American Anarchist](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6032170/) that **Lucas** alluded to in the OP. It’s basically an 80 minute interview with Mr. Powell.

I’ve owned that book since the the late '70s; ordered it from Loompanics. I thought it was very interesting to hear what Mr. Powell was thinking when he wrote it and what he thought now of what he thought then.

ETA: Aye, **nightshadea** , he did indeed renounce the book, in a number of very public ways, including a posting on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) (in 2002? I can’t recall the exact date) and an article in The Guardian (in 2013).