Peter Tompkins (April 19, 1919 in Athens, Georgia - January 23, 2007) was an American journalist, World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) spy in Rome, and best-selling occult author.
He was war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and CBS during World War II. In 1943 he was recruited by the OSS and utilized as an undercover agent in Italy in 1944. In 1962 he published his diary, titled A Spy in Rome (New York: Simon and Schuster).
His best known books are The Secret Life of Plants (1973), Secrets of the Great Pyramid (1972; paperback reprint, 1997, and Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids (1976).