James Marie Hopper (July 23, 1876 – August 28, 1956) was an American writer and novelist. He was also an early
college football player and coach, playing at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in the late 1890s and then serving single seasons as head football coach at Nevada State University—now known as the
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...
—in 1900 and at his alma mater, California, in 1904. During his lifetime, Hopper published 450 short stories and six novels.
Early life, education, and college football career
Hopper was born on July 23, 1876, in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, France, to John Joseph Hopper, a native of Ireland, and his wife, Victoire Blanche Lefebvre.
He attended schooling in Paris and later immigrated to the United States with his mother to California, where he completed his preliminary education.
Hopper graduated from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
with the class of 1898. While at Berkeley, he played football and first as an
end
End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to:
End
*In mathematics:
** End (category theory)
** End (topology)
**End (graph theory)
** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous)
**End (endomorphism)
*In sports and games
**End (gridiron footbal ...
and later at
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
. He completed law school at the
Hastings Law School. He passed the state bar examination but never practiced law. Instead he worked as a reporter on the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
,'' and was on the staff of ''The Wave,'' a literary San Francisco weekly.
In 1900, Hopper was hired to coach football at Nevada State University—now known as the
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...
. He led the
1900 Nevada State Sagebrushers football team to a record of 4–2–1 including a win over
Stanford.
Hopper married Mattie E. Leonard on September 21, 1901, at the San Francisco residence of her father, Joseph E. Leonard, and mother. The coupled honeymooned to
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
.
Writing career
After coaching at the University of California in 1904, Hopper was sent to the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, by the ''
McClure's
''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism ( investigative, wa ...
'' magazine, to write a new book. When they returned to the United States, Hopper joined the McClure's staff in San Francisco. He then became a reporter for ''
The San Francisco Call
''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...
'' at the time of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake.
He ended up staying there for two years to teach school.
In 1907, he and his wife moved to
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California where his good friend,
George Sterling
George Sterling (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American writer based in the San Francisco, California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was considered a prominent poet and playwright and proponent of Bohemianism during the fi ...
, had established "Bohemia-by-the Sea". There he rented a house by the beach where he published stories that he hoped to sell to magazines. In Carmel many of his close associates were friends from his encounters at Coppa's “bohemian” restaurant in San Francisco, including:
Harry Leon Wilson
Harry Leon Wilson (May 1, 1867 – June 28, 1939) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''Ruggles of Red Gap'' and '' Merton of the Movies''. Another of his works, ''Bunker Bean'', helped popularize the term "flapper". ...
,
Xavier Martinez
Xavier or Xabier may refer to:
Place
* Xavier, Spain
People
* Xavier (surname)
* Xavier (given name)
* Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint
** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation)
* St. Xavier (disambiguation)
* Xavier (footballer, born ...
,
Arnold Genthe
Arnold Genthe (8 January 1869 – 9 August 1942) was a German-American photographer, best known for his photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and his portraits of noted people, from politicians and sociali ...
, painter
Francis McComas and his wife Gene as well as Perry Newberry,
Mary Hunter Austin
Mary Hunter Austin (September 9, 1868 – August 13, 1934) was an American writer. One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her classic ''The Land of Little Rain'' (1903) describes the fauna, flora, and people – as well as ev ...
, and
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
.
[ An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website.] He was also friends with writer
Frederick R. Bechdolt. Together, they wrote the fictional novel ''
9009'' about the condition of American prisons and the need for reform.
Hopper was close friends with novelist
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
. In April 1907, London was aboard his boat, ''the Snark,'' when he held the sleeve of a football sweater with his wife Charmian, and Hopper. The London's were prepared to embark on a round-the-world cruise. London hoisted his old friend's jersey up the mast and flew it like a flag as the ''Snark'' sailed past the
Golden Gate
The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by t ...
and out of San Francisco Bay.
When he left Carmel he returned to Oakland to write stories of his Philippine adventures for
''Sunset'' and other magazines.
Following his return to Carmel, Hopper built a home on the site that George Sterling had a home. He became a United States citizen in 1917. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he worked as a correspondent for ''
Collier's'' magazine. At the end of the war, he became a full-time Carmel resident. He was active at the
Forest Theater
The Forest Theater is an historic amphitheater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Founded in 1910, it is one of the oldest outdoor theaters west of the Rockies. Actor/director Herbert Heron is generally cited as the founder and driving force, an ...
in Carmel. During the
Great Depression in the United States, he served in the
WPA's Federal Writers' Project as a state director and later as the northern regional director.
Death
Hopper died at his Carmel home on August 28, 1956, at age 80. Funeral services were held in
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,090. Pacific Grove is located between Point Pinos and Monterey.
Pacific Grove has numerous Victorian-era houses, s ...
.
Head coaching record
Works
* ''The Proud Dig and the Lazy Student'' (1901)
(short story published by A. M. Robertson)
* ''
Caybigan'' (1906)
(short stories)
* ''
9009'' (1908)
* ''The Trimming of Goosie'' (1909)
* ''The Freshman'' (1912)
* ''What Happened in the Night, and Other Stories'' (1913)
(short stories)
* ''Coming Back With the Spitball, a Pitcher's Romance'' (1914)
* Medals Of Honor (1929) illus. John Alan Maxwell
Short works from magazines
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopper, James
1876 births
1956 deaths
19th-century players of American football
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American novelists
American football ends
American football quarterbacks
California Golden Bears football coaches
California Golden Bears football players
Nevada Wolf Pack football coaches
San Francisco Chronicle people
University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni
Sportspeople from Paris
Coaches of American football from California
Players of American football from California
French emigrants to the United States
French people of Irish descent
French players of American football