The kid gone wrong in Rebel Without a Cause. The hippie outlaw in Easy Rider. The crazed photojournalist in Apocalypse Now. The drunken dad in Hoosiers. The twisted psychopath in Blue Velvet. The actor once taken under the wing of none other than John Wayne, who wanted to be the next Orson Welles. All of these characters stack up to show but one side of Dennis Hopper. The life of Dennis Hopper is one of the great American stories, populated by icons not just from Hollywood, but from the spheres of politics, art, music and activism. Known as a revolutionary, a gifted performer, an addict plagued by demons, and as a cultural tastemaker, his is a uniquely American life, a story that starts during the Great Depression and follows the path of 60s rebellion and 70s hedonism to 80s greed and beyond. Always a man of extremes, always a man of high highs and the lowest of the lows, Dennis Hopper was more than anything a man who played by his own rules. Hopper is a rollicking road trip through Dennis' many lives, packed with hundreds of interviews with his fellows actors, wives, artists, musicians, residents of Taos, New Mexico (where Hopper spent much of his most drug addicted time) telling the greater story of a half-century of rebellion waged at the edge of American culture.

About the Author
Tom Folsom is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld. Folsom is also a writer, director, and producer of documentaries, and his work has appeared at Sundance and on A&E and Showtime. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Reviews
"Guns, motorcycles, mug shots, drugs, paintings, madness. Even by Hollywood standards, Dennis Hopper led an extraordinary life...Tom Folsom structures Hopper, his book about the man, in a time-bending, sensational style reminiscent of Hopper's most out-there projects." -- Details "Tom Folsom tears through the life of Dennis Hopper in Hopper: A Journey into the American Dream." -- Vanity Fair "Rollicking." -- GQ "Folsom has neatly framed actor Dennis Hopper." -- Wall Street Journal "Mr. Folsom plays the part of [Hopper's] spiritual medium, taking us through each chapter of the Kansas-born, James Dean-worshipping, psychedelic psychotic's life, describing exactly what was going through the mind of the semi-tragic American almost-hero at each juncture." -- New York Observer "Folsom carries the reader on a caffeine-and-other-substance-fueled ride." -- New York Post "Folsom does an admirable job capturing Hopper's manic and spirited personality in prose." -- Publishers Weekly "Hip...frank...a rich portrayal of an unconventional, free-wheeling thinker whose checkered experiences shock and beguile on the page." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Fortunately for him, Dennis Hopper has gotten the biographer he deserves. Which is to say, Folsom's gonzo prose pulsates with Hopper's manic energy and fits his madness like a glove." -- Peter Biskind, New York Times bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls "Tom Folsom's Hopper is an electric and rollicking, tour de force profile of Hollywood's great outlaw chameleon. All the wild-eyed stories and high-octane pathos in these pages make me miss the edgy, 'grand artiste' Hopper anew. A knockout book!" -- Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of Cronkite "Dennis did a lot for motorcycling with his movie Easy Rider. Folsom has written a book that shows Dennis's life like it was: crazy but brilliant." -- Ralph "Sonny" Barger, author of the New York Times bestseller Hell's Angel and former head of the Oakland chapter of the Hell's Angels "Essential reading for anyone interested in Dennis Hopper, the explosive sixties, Hollywood, American cinema, and the art of the twentieth century. But watch out-this visceral book puts you right in it, and some of it is jaw-dropping." -- Philippe Mora, director of Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper "What a terrific book about Dennis Hopper-he would have loved it and hated it. Beautifully written, stunningly accurate, Hopper captures all the wonderful and terrifying contradictions of the sweet, sad, funny, angry, and loving man that was Dennis." -- Henry Jaglom, actor, playwright, and director of Tracks, starring Dennis Hopper "Dennis Hopper was unlike any human I've ever met: consumed with passion for his subject, aesthetically brave, yet possessing a gentle heart. Though I would have said it couldn't be done, Tom Folsom has captured the real Dennis." -- Karen Black, actress and Dennis Hopper's costar in Easy Rider



Book Information
ISBN 9780062206954
Author Tom Folsom
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint It Books
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Weight(grams) 354g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm