He also wrote and produced television programs for Mort Sahl, ABC-TV and Universal Studios (1964–1966 1971). He joined Mike Wallace as a writer-producer in New York for one year (1961–62) then moved to Los Angeles where he was a talent coordinator and writer-producer for Steve Allen (1962–1964).

He earned a BA in journalism from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1957 and, following a short period as a reporter for the Twin City Sentinel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and brief service in the US Army, an MS in journalism from Columbia University in New York in 1959.Īfter freelancing articles to the then-young Village Voice while at Columbia, he worked as a reporter for the Times-Picayune and as news editor of WWL Radio in New Orleans (1959–1961). He attended a Quaker school through 6th grade and public schools through 12th. His parents operated a dry cleaning store. Hopkins was born in Camden, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Haddonfield, a town founded by Quakers.

Some of his books have been translated into over a dozen languages. Hopkins published 37 books and an estimated one thousand magazine articles. He also penned several other biographies, wrote history and humor, and was a writer-producer for Mike Wallace, Steve Allen and Mort Sahl. Elisha Gerald Hopkins (Novem– June 3, 2018) was an American journalist and author best known for writing the first biographies of Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison of the Doors, as well as serving for 20 years as a correspondent and contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine.

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