Hopkins, Jerry 1935-

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HOPKINS, Jerry 1935-

PERSONAL: Born November 9, 1935, in Camden, NJ; son of F. Brognard and Ruth May (Ginder) Hopkins; married Rebecca Crockett (an editor), May 2, 1981; children: Erin, Nicky, Kessel. Education: Washington and Lee University, B.A., 1957; Columbia University, M.S., 1959.

ADDRESSES: Home—Box 1224, Nana Post Office, Bangkok, Thailand. Agent—Esther Newburg, International Creative Management, 40 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist and author. Reporter for Twin City Sentinel, Winston-Salem, NC, 1957-58, Village Voice, New York, NY, 1959-60, and Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA, 1959-61; television writer and producer for Steve Allen, Mort Sahl, Mike Wallace, and other shows, 1961-66; Headquarters, Inc. (youth marketing), Los Angeles, CA, president, 1966-68; Happy Buttons (novelty manufacturer), Los Angeles, president, 1967-68; Majority Report (marketing newsletter), Hollywood, CA, editor, 1968-69; freelance journalist and writer.

MEMBER: Writers Guild, Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Documentary award, Billboard, for The Elvis Presley Story.

WRITINGS:

Bare Feet and Good Things to Eat, Virg Nover Press, 1965.

(With Jim Critchfield) The Unoffıcial Horoscope, Price, Stern (Los Angeles, CA), 1966, published as You Were Born on a Rotten Day: The Unoffıcial Horoscope, 1969.

The Hippie Papers: Notes from the Underground Press, New American Library (New York, NY), 1968.

The Rock Story, New American Library (New York, NY), 1970.

(With John Burks) Groupies and Other Girls, Bantam (New York, NY), 1970.

(With Jim Marshall and Baron Wolman) Festival!:The Book of American Music Celebrations, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1970.

Elvis: A Biography, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1971.

(With Ron Pion, M.D.) The Last Sex Manual, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1977.

(With Daniel Sugarman) No One Here Gets Out Alive, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1980, revised edition, 1995.

Elvis: The Final Years, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1980.

The Hula, Apa Productions, 1982.

Hit and Run: The Jimi Hendrix Story, Perigee (New York, NY), 1983.

Bowie, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1985.

The Hawaiian Book of Lists; or, Fax to da Max, Bess Press (Honolulu, HI), 1985, published as Fax 2 da Max, 1988.

Yoko Ono, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1986.

The L.A. Book of Lists, Price/Stern/Sloan (Los Angeles, CA), 1987.

How to Make Your Own Hawaiian Musical Instruments, Bess Press (Honolulu, HI), 1988.

The Westin Maui, Hemmeter (Honolulu, HI), 1989.

(With Susan Manuel) Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save Hawaii, Bess Press (Honolulu, HI), 1990.

(Editor) Frank DeLima's Joke Book: Having Fun withPortagees, Pakes, Buddha Heads, Buk Buks, Blallahs, Soles, Yobos, Haoles, Tidahs, Pit Bulls, and Other Hawaiian Minorities, Bess Press (Honolulu, HI), 1991.

The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, Scribner (New York, NY), 1992.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Arcade (New York, NY), 1996.

Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies: AnEpicurean Adventure around the World, Periplus Editions (Boston, MA), 1999.

Also author of radio documentary, The Elvis Presley Story. Contributor of numerous articles to magazines and newspapers, including Coronet, Cavalier, Good Housekeeping, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Free Press, Realist, Writer's Digest, Journal of Popular Culture, and Rolling Stone. Editor of Ha'ilono Mele (Hawaii); contributing editor to Rolling Stone for twenty years.

ADAPTATIONS: Elvis: The Final Years was optioned as a motion picture.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist Jerry Hopkins once told the Honolulu Advertiser that a fascination with the work of World War II combat correspondent Ernie Pyle sparked his interest in writing. "It was reading Pyle's stories of the ordinary soldier that brought forth my first desires to be a journalist," Hopkins commented. Since the late 1950s, Hopkins has contributed hundreds of articles in national magazines, among them Rolling Stone, where he served as a contributing editor for two decades. He has also authored several highly successful biographies of such notable rock stars as Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie. The biographies of Morrison and Presley—No One Here Gets Out Alive (written with Daniel Sugar-man) and Elvis: The Final Years—reached the best-seller lists in 1980, while the Morrison book was equally popular. Works such as these have earned Hopkins the nickname "dean of the pop biographers."

Reviewing No One Here Gets Out Alive for the Washington Post, David Bourdon wrote: "In this doggedly researched, superbly illustrated and sensationalistic account . . . Morrison emerges as . . . all the stuff of which legends are made." New York Times critic Janet Maslin expressed less enthusiasm about the work, stating: "Whatever the nature of Morrison's talents may have been, it eludes Messrs. Hopkins and Sugarman . . . so thoroughly that the endurance of the Morrison legend becomes a mystery to which this volume can't offer a clue." People magazine correspondent Salley Rayl noted: "Whatever the book's literary merit, the coauthors defend their portrayal of Morrison as 'a complex person—a friend, a poet, a writer, a drinker, and a ladies' man.' . . The volume is full of grist for the mythmaker mill."

Hopkins moved to the Far East in the 1990s and currently resides in Bangkok, Thailand. From there he contributes travel articles to airline magazines and other periodicals devoted to tourism. His interest in Asian cuisine led to the book Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies: An Epicurean Adventure around the World, a volume that scouts the globe for the most bizarre foods consumed by humankind. Hopkins reveals many oddities in his book, from the more mundane, such as dog, cat, and water buffalo, to the ultra-exotic, including snake wine, slugs, dirt, and duck feet. Booklist contributor Mark Knoblauch called Strange Foods an "excellent survey" of uncommon comestibles that is noteworthy for its "accessible treatment of food taboos."

In his interview with the Honolulu Advertiser, Hopkins commented that he continues to be intrigued with "the public image of a famous person, how it's created and marketed." He added, "Most important, though, I just like writing about people. The great life of a journalist is sharing others' lives, then sharing their lives with as many others as you can. For me, as it was for Ernie Pyle, that's what it's really all about."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, September 15, 1992, Ray Olson, review of The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, p. 90; December 15, 1999, Mark Knoblauch, review of Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies: An Epicurean Adventure around the World, p. 746.

Entertainment Weekly, November 19, 1999, Clarissa Cruz, "Living in a Foodie's Paradise," p. 138.

Honolulu Advertiser, August 22, 1980, interview with Hopkins.

Library Journal, November 15, 1999, Wendy Miller, review of Strange Foods, p. 92.

New York Times Book Review, September 21, 1980. People, December 22, 1980.

Publishers Weekly, October 12, 1992, review of TheLizard King, p. 61; September 4, 1995, review of No One Here Gets Out Alive, p. 35.

Washington Post, July 17, 1980.*