Masters of Oxymoronica: Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

On July 25, 1902, Eric Hoffer was born in New York City. His early life was characterized by hardship. His mother died when he was a child. His family continually lived on the edge of poverty. An accident at age seven left him partially blind until age fifteen, when he recovered and began a program of voracious reading that continued for the rest of his life. After his father died in 1920, the 18-year-old Hoffer moved to California, where he worked for the next 23 years as a migrant worker and manual laborer. In 1943, he joined the longshoreman's union, working on the docks a few days a week and devoting the rest of his time to reading and writing (he continued as a dockworker until 1967). Beginning with The True Believer in 1951, Hoffer became one of the most popular social observers of his time. His later books included The Passionate State of Mind, The Ordeal of Change, and Reflections on the Human Condition. Influenced by the French essayist Montaigne and the French aphorist La Rochefoucauld, much of Hoffer's writing was pithy, punchy, and epigrammatic. His quotable style combined with his persona as a self-educated, working-class philosopher made him something of a folk hero during his lifetime. In 1982 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in America. He died at age 80 in his adopted city of San Francisco on May 21, 1983.