Peter Tompkins was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Office of Strategic Services

Office of Strategic Services

The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

 (OSS) spy in Rome, and best-selling occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

 author.

He was war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune

New York Herald Tribune

The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...

and CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In 1943 he was recruited by the OSS and utilized as an undercover agent in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 1944. In 1962 he published his diary, titled A Spy in Rome (New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

: Simon and Schuster).

His best known books are The Secret Life of Plants

The Secret Life of Plants

The Secret Life of Plants is a book by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, described as "A fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man."...

(1973), Secrets of the Great Pyramid (1972; paperback reprint, 1997, and Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids (1976).

He was the father of author Ptolemy Tompkins

Ptolemy Tompkins

Ptolemy Tompkins is an American writer, author of Paradise Fever: Dispatches from the Dawn of the New Age and a senior editor at Guideposts Magazine.-Biography:...

.

External links

• Associated Press obituary, International Herald Tribune, January 24, 2007
• 2004 profile of Peter Tompkins in Italian magazine "The American."
• Obituary and Tribute to Peter Tompkins at Cryptomundo.com
• Article by Tompkins on the OSS and Italian Partisans in World War II
• Article on Spies in WWII by Tompkins