From the best-selling author Anthony Cave-Brown, the extraordinary life of William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan, the founding father of America's first secret intelligence and special operations organization--a hero on the battlefield and a behind-the-scenes power.

With exclusive access to all of Donovan's personal and secret papers and his wife's diaries, Mr. Brown has laid out for the first time the remarkable and definitive life story of this most legendary figure of our time.

The scope of Donovan's career is astonishing. He made his mark in the U.S. Cavalry chasing Pancho Villa; won half a dozen of the highest medals of World War I in action on the western front, including the supreme award, the Medal of Honor; becoming acting attorney general of the United States; personally won a number of landmark cases before the Supreme Court; ran as Republican candidate for governor of New York and was often spoken of for the presidency; created the great law firm of Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine; was founding head of the OSS and the creator of the CIA, and ambassador to Thailand.

Among Donovan's greatest accomplishments was his role in the grand strategic plan for Germany's defeat in World War II, the Arcadia plan, in which Donovan's contribution was to ignite the national uprisings coincident with the invasion of France. He also made a decisive contribution in diverting the Nazi armies into the Balkans, fatally delaying the German invasion of Russia.

America's counterpart to the tale of Britain's "Intrepid" (Sir William Stephenson), Donovan's story will be relished by espionage and war buffs. Here, revealed at last, are the inside, background details of the most expraordinary military and spy operations of World War II.