Athens (Greece), 1919 - Shepherdstown (USA), 2007

A journalist and spy in World War II, Peter Tompkins worked as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and NBC before joining the CIA's predecessor, Office of Strategic Services, in 1941. As he had grown up in Italy, he was sent to Rome before the invasion of Italy in 1944, an experience he would later write about in his book A Spy in Rome (1962). He is the author of more than a dozen books, including best sellers such as The Secret Life of Plants (1973) and Secrets of the Great Pyramid (1971). He studied cinematography with the Italian production company Ponti-De Laurentiis and has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, Look, Life, The New Republic and various foreign newspapers.