Author of counterculture manifesto ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’ dies at 66

As an enraged 19-year-old, William Powell holed up in the bowels of the New York City Public Library and pored through every shred of mayhem he could find — declassified military documents, Army field guides, electronic catalogs, insurrectionist pamphlets, survivalist guidebooks.

The material formed the bedrock for “The Anarchist Cookbook,” a crude though clever how-to book for aspiring terrorists, troublemakers and would-be revolutionaries.

Published as the Vietnam War continued to boil and the Summer of Love faded in the distance, the book became a bestseller and an instant manifesto of dissent in America, as ubiquitous in a college dorm room as a Che Guevara poster or a copy of the “Whole Earth Catalog.”

But as the decades passed, Powell came to see the book as a misstep, a vast error in judgment. Confronted late in life by the makers of the documentary “American Anarchist,” Powell seemed to buckle at the thought that his book had been tied to Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombing, and a litany of other atrocities.

Long an expatriate, Powell died of a heart attack July 11 during a vacation with his wife, children and grandchildren in Halifax, Canada. His death only became public when it was noted in the closing credits of “American Anarchist,” which premiered Friday. His death was also noted on a Facebook page devoted to Powell’s work.