Thank you for your largely appreciative review of my book.

There’s a simple reason why I never spoke with Dennis Hopper–he refused my requests for an interview, as did his surviving family members and many of his friends, colleagues, ex-wives and others who I approached. That’s a practical reality and occupational hazard that biographers must confront.. When I wrote the book proposal for my biography in January 2010, Hopper was busy contending with terminal cancer, battling his wife in divorce court, and consulting with museum curators on a retrospective of his art. Hopper was also obligated to complete his memoirs, which he had signed a contract to write for Little, Brown in 2006. It is hardly surprising that he didn’t grant me a deathbed interview.

I was fortunate in securing interviews with Hopper’s high-school friends, who contributed invaluable insights into his character as well as archival material, with Hopper’s first wife, Brooke Hayward, his widow, Victoria Hopper, and others.

Regarding what you characterise as a turgid detail (“do we really need to know the precise time, day and date of a staging for a one-act play Hopper wrote in high school?”), to be correct, Hopper did not write, but directed that one-act play.

Nevertheless, thank you for taking the time to select my book from the many that must cross your desk and bringing it to your reader’s attention.

Sincerely,
Peter L. Winkler