POWELL, William. The Anarchist Cookbook.

(New York, NY): Lyle Stuart Inc., 1971.  Second printing (published the same month as the first).  Quarto.  28.5cm by 24cm.  160 pages.  Prefatory essay on contemporary Anarchism Today by Peter Bergman.  This the most notorious How To manual, was written by William Powell at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States’s involvement in the Vietnam War.  The controversial volume contained instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. The book was meant to provide education to “the silent majority” of the American population. Powell stated that the book was not intended for extant political fringe organizations but was designed to galvanize a great societal change by inciting the masses. The ultimate goal of the text was to provide the general population with the skills and capabilities to organize against fascist, capitalist, and communist threats.  The central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change.  Powell was later to denounce this view and called for the book to be withdrawn from publication.  At the time of its publication, one FBI memo described The Anarchist Cookbook as “one of the crudest, low-brow, paranoiac writing efforts ever attempted, nevertheless FBI, agents were assigned to track which stores sold the book and to find out if William Powell was a pseudonym.  The volume is illustrated throughout.  This is a very good copy in printed wrappers.  Wrappers with some edgewear but this is a much nicer copy than is usually encountered.  The early printings of this work are now difficult to locate, particularly in this condition.