Wendell Lewis Willkie (/ˈwɛndəlˈluːɨsˈwɪlki/; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and anti-business. Willkie, an internationalist, needed the votes of the large isolationist element, so he waffled on the bitterly debated issue of America's role in World War II, losing support from both sides. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote.

Afterward, Roosevelt found Willkie to be compatible politically with his plans and brought him aboard as an informal ambassador-at-large. Willkie criss-crossed the globe on the former army bomber The Gulliver, bringing home a vision of "One World" freed from imperialism and colonialism. Following his journeys Willkie wrote One World; a bestselling account of his travels and meetings with the Allied heads of state, as well as ordinary citizens and soldiers in regions such as Russia and Iran. His liberalism lost him supporters in the GOP and he dropped out of the 1944 race, then died of a heart attack. He never held political office.

Early life
Education and early career
Willkie's house in Rushville
Willkie was born and raised in Elwood, Indiana, the son of Herman Willkie, a German immigrant from Aschersleben whose family name originally was "Willcke", and his wife Henrietta Trisch. Both of his parents were lawyers in Elwood, his mother being one of the first women admitted to the bar in Indiana. He was named Lewis Wendell Willkie, but among his friends and family he was called by his middle name, Wendell.

Willkie graduated from Elwood High School, and four years later in 1913 earned a BA from Indiana University, where he belonged to Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He taught history for a year in Coffeyville, Kansas, then entered the Indiana University School of Law, receiving his LLB in 1916.

The following year, when the U.S. entered World War I, Willkie enlisted in the Army. An Army clerk accidentally transposed his first and middle names, and Willkie did not correct it, thereafter calling himself Wendell Lewis Willkie. He received a commission as a First Lieutenant and trained to be an artillery officer. However, he arrived in France just as the war ended. Since he was a lawyer, he was assigned to the American headquarters in Paris to assist in military trials.

After his discharge, Willkie worked as a corporate lawyer for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. He became active in the Akron Democratic Party, and was a delegate to the 1924 Democratic National Convention. In 1919 Willkie married Edith Wilk (no relation), a librarian from Rushville, Indiana. They had one son, Philip.

Business and politics
In 1929, Willkie became a legal counsel for the New York-based Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, which provided electrical power to customers in eleven states. Four years later, he became the company's president. Willkie was a delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention. He initially backed former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker for the presidential nomination, but when Franklin D. Roosevelt was chosen, Willkie supported him and contributed money to his campaign.