The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce

Description

The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce by Robert S. Griffin is about the life and ideas of the most influential and intriguing figure on the identitarian right in America. William Pierce is best known as the author of the famous underground novel, The Turner Diaries, which has sold over three hundred thousand copies.

Robert Griffin lived for a month on Pierce’s heavily guarded property in rural West Virginia and came to know Pierce and those around him. Griffin conducted twenty hours of audio-taped interviews with Pierce, which he draws upon extensively in The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds. The book recounts Pierce’s personal story from childhood on, identifies the books and people and situations that have influenced him, spells out his perspective on the issues of our time, and describes his day-to-day routine. The title of the book is drawn from an old Norse poem which, in ways that become clear as the book progresses, captures the meaning Pierce ascribes to his own life. Pierce is put in a larger frame by accounts of the lives and ideas of other individuals on the right, most of them unfamiliar to the general public, and references to related published materials, many of which are not readily available.