At the very least, he could have done something dramatic yet positive. Pulling down all his code like that, I really think he was out to spite everyone.
He worked for years on code and writings with free licenses - so for the most part he didn't really "delete" his work, but rather just stopped distributing it. He must have been aware of this fact when he took his sites/accounts down.
You have no right to continue to demand he makes his work available to you.
> I really think he was out to spite everyone.
If that were the case he would have never written it in the first place.
Or written it with some license that stipulates it cannot be used in either closed source or any open source applications, only for 'educational' use. Worse, he could have tried to do it retroactively.
I doubt he had that intention.
He has every right to demand it.