The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan. [Paperback]

Anthony Cave Brown (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 891 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (March 12, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394723058
• ISBN-13: 978-0394723051
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #908,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive biography of father of OSS, later CIA, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan. (Paperback)

"Wild Bill" Donovan hails from Buffalo, N.Y.. In this extensive work of author Brown, we're provided his full story (as much as can be told, anyway) from WWII, Switzerland, the initial days at Rockefeller Center (and later, Langley), legal inception and structural formulation and dialogue with the president and military services to form the OSS, presently known as the CIA.

Exceptionally well-written (and just as exemplary, by the way, as author Brown does with Britain's analogue "C") and informative. Superb on WWII OSS operations in Europe. Author Brown explains much of what didn't already know, and fills-in wonderfully where we do.

Not short on pages, it captivates for just about every one of them.

What was the understanding then? That Hoover feared no one? You may disclose otherwise.

Good man, that Donovan. Good too, Brown, for work well done.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too Comprehensive, February 19, 2010

By 

Silver Lake Mike (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan. (Paperback)

The author clearly is trying to write the definitive biography. However, he really seems to have no insights into Donovan himself. In order to fill the space of the book (over 800 pages), he loads it down with minutiae about OSS operations. For example, he quotes portions of memos that easily could have been summarized in a sentence or two, and dedicates entire chapters to minor incidents and personalities in WWII. The author also has a completely unengaging writing style. As a result, the book is dry and long. The subject matter is interesting, but the book is a long slog.