The Anarchist Cookbook.

POWELL, William; Peter Bergman [Salvador Dali].

$12,000.00

Item Number: 148162

New York: Lyle Stuart, Inc, 1971.

Rare first edition of this book of illegal recipes. Square quarto, original boards, illustrated with diagrams throughout. Association copy, inscribed by the publisher to Salvador Dali, “To [Salvador] Dali – Not as good as your cookbook – but the Spanish edition will be better – Lyle Stuart.”
The true first edition of this infamous manual that includes instructions on making bombs, weapons, drugs and much besides. This copy in the rarer hardback edition. Stuart’s publishing house developed a reputation as a publisher of controversial books, he collaborated with Salvador Dali when he helped publish his set of six lithographs The Lyle Stuart Tarot. A letter of provenance accompanies this book. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Introduction by Peter M. Bergman. An exceptional association.

Written by William Powell as a teenager and first published in 1971 at the height of Vietnam War protests and the counterculture movement in the United States, 'The Anarchist Cookbook' was created as an educational tool meant to teach the general public "that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change" and provide them with the skills to do so. The book contains instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary bugging devices, lethal and nonlethal weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. When Powell converted to Anglicanism in 1976, he attempted to have the book removed from circulation, but because the copyright had been issued to the original publisher Lyle Stuart and subsequent publishers that purchased the rights, circulation continued until 1991.