Art Hoppe was a popular columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

for more than 40 years. He was known for satirical and allegorical columns that skewered the self-important. Many columns featured whimsical characters such as expert-in-all-things Homer T. Pettibone and a presidential candidate named Nobody. Occasionally, Hoppe reined in his humor for poignant columns on serious topics, such as "To Root Against Your Country," a noted 1971 column against the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. Hoppe began at the Chronicle as a copy boy in 1949 and was promoted to reporter before beginning his own column. At the peak of its popularity, Hoppe's column appeared in the Chronicle five days a week and was syndicated in more than 100 newspapers nationwide. His close friends included fellow columnists Russell Baker

Russell Baker

Russell Wayne Baker is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer known for his satirical commentary and self-critical prose, as well as for his autobiography, Growing Up.-His career:...

 and Art Buchwald

Art Buchwald

Arthur Buchwald was an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary...

.

Hoppe received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 1996. He died from complications of lung cancer in February 2000, aged 74, survived by his wife Gloria and four children.

Publications

• The Love Everybody* Crusade (* Except Antarcticans) (Doubleday, 1963)
• Dreamboat, novel (Doubleday, 1964)
• Our San Francisco, contributor with Kenneth Rexroth
  Kenneth Rexroth
  Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
  
  & others (Diablo Press 1964)
• The Perfect Solution to Absolutely Everything (Doubleday, 1968)
• Mr Nixon, and My Other Problems (Chronicle Books, 1971)
• Miss Lollipop and the Doom Machine, novel (Doubleday, 1973)
• Tiddling Tennis (Viking, 1977)
• The Marital Arts (Arbor House, 1985)
• Humor, Hope, and Humanity's Future (Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1987)
• Having a Wonderful Time: My First Half Century as a News Paper Man, memoir (Chronicle Books 1995)
• Above San Francisco, photography by Robert Cameron (Cameron & Co., 1998)

According to an obituary he also wrote two plays.

External links

• Obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle
• National Society of Newspaper Columnists Hall of Fame