Peter Tompkins | Spy and author, 87

Peter Tompkins, 87, a former journalist, World War II spy and best-selling author, died Wednesday in Shepherdstown, W. Va.

He served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and NBC before joining the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, in 1941.

Because he grew up in Italy, he was sent to Rome before the U.S. invasion of Italy in 1944. He wrote about his experiences in the 1962 book A Spy in Rome.

The book was among more than a dozen he wrote or cowrote, including The Secret Life of Plants and Secrets of the Great Pyramid. - AP