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Capitol Ideas
The Mystery of Eric Hoffer
We know very little about his life before he was 35.
No one had heard of Eric Hoffer until he published The True Believer (1951), a set of reflections about mass movements and those attracted to them. He was also known as the Longshoreman Philosopher. From 1943 to 1967 he worked under Harry Bridges, the labor boss on the San Francisco waterfront. After The True Believer he wrote a number of books, mostly short, consisting of his articles or aphorisms. He became an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley at the time of the Free Speech movement and was interviewed by Eric Sevareid for CBS. He died in 1983, his age probably 85.
But we know very little about his life before the mid-1930s. That is where the mystery comes in. We know that he moved to San Francisco soon after Pearl Harbor and rented a room in a low-rent district. There he wrote The True Believer, using a plank for a desk. Before that he was a migrant worker in California’s Central Valley—stoop labor picking fruit and vegetables.
In 1934 he showed up at a federal homeless shelter in El Centro, California, close to the Mexican border. A trucker drove him there from San Diego, where he was so hungry that he ate cabbage “cow style” at a wholesale food depot. Where was he before San Diego? I believe there is great uncertainty. It may be that he had crossed the border from Mexico.
Hoffer never married but about a decade ago his long-time lady friend, Lili Osborne, made his papers available to researchers at the Hoover Institution, Stanford. In summer visits to Hoover, I went through those papers and now my book, Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher is out (published by the Hoover Institution Press). It includes photographs and some unpublished writing by Hoffer.
Earlier, I interviewed Hoffer himself; both shortly before Ronald Reagan’s election and then a few months later. I also interviewed some of the few who knew him well, including Lili Osborne and her son Eric. Another close friend was Stacy Cole, a professor at a community college in Fremont. He was associated with Hoffer over a 15-year period. Also featured is Lili’s husband, Selden Osborne. He and Hoffer worked together as longshoremen and Hoffer called him a “true believer.” He was in the room with Hoffer when he died.
Thomas Sowell, a senior fellow at Hoover, was interested in Hoffer and compiled an index to his books. Once he asked me if I was writing a biography of Hoffer. I said that if you don’t know much about the first 35 years of a man’s life, “biography” may be a misnomer.
Three books about Hoffer were published in his lifetime. The first, by Calvin Tomkins, was based on a New Yorker profile in 1967. Tomkins told me that when he interviewed Hoffer, “the things he said about his early life did sound quite shadowy, but he was a great talker and he made it all seem authentic.” James D. Koerner, with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, wrote a second book (Hoffer’s America, 1973). Hoffer “plainly dislikes talking about his early life,” Koerner wrote. In fact, “quite a bit of it is simply unknown to him.” To a doctoral student, Hoffer said: “I am uninterested in my distant past. I have probably told everything worth telling.”
Hoffer said he spent the first 20 years of his life in the Bronx. But everything he said could fit onto two pages. Nothing can be confirmed. He never gave his Bronx address, never went to school, identified no friends. He said he went blind for eight years, hence no school. Then he recovered his sight. Ancestry sites have turned up nothing and when Lili’s son Eric once told Hoffer that he felt like “hiring a genealogist in New York to look up your father,” whose name was Knut, Hoffer replied:
“Are you sure you really want to know?” Like there was some dark stuff.…I don’t know. There’s stuff happened that he didn’t want anybody to know. He had a real casual and dreadful way of letting something slip. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Hoffer spoke with a strong German accent. He told people that Knut came to New York from Al-sace-Lorraine. But young Eric went there, too, and found that their lilting accent was quite unlike Hoffer’s more guttural Bavarian. He tried looking through the “Ellis Island stuff” but could find no trace of Knut Hoffer.
In a late notebook Hoffer wrote that young Eric believed him to be his father. Stephen Osborne, Eric’s older brother, agreed. But when I asked Eric Osborne himself for a comment at the time of Lili’s funeral, he said: “I guess I had better leave that unanswered. Both of those guys [Selden and Hoffer] are a part of me and I loved them both.”
Young Eric agreed that Hoffer’s account of his early life didn’t add up. He thought Hoffer’s case might be comparable to that of B. Traven, the mysterious German author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, whose identity is still unknown. (B. Traven was a pen name.)
But most significant was the response of Lili Osborne. She could be intimidating, and I worried that she might throw me out when I expressed skepticism about Hoffer’s early life. Instead she welcomed the idea and said she had always thought of him as an immigrant. She had no definite knowledge. She did say that “all we know about his early life is what he told us.” She also said that, although she had known Hoffer for 30 years, she never once met anyone from his earlier (pre-True Believer) life.
TO ME, THE CLINCHER CAME with a discovery about “Martha,” a German woman who supposedly came with Hoffer’s parents from Europe to the Bronx. As a child he slept in her bed, and when he went blind she guided him about. But in Hoffer’s early accounts of his life, for example in The Reporter in 1951, there is no Martha. She appears in 1957, in an article by Eugene Burdick, who later co-authored two best sellers, The Ugly American and Fail-Safe. Then Martha becomes a fixture in Hoffer’s later accounts. I believe she was a later invention.
Lili also told me that when The True Believer manuscript was written but before publication, he submitted it to Rabbi Saul White in San Francisco for his approval. He was told “that he should proceed.” The fate of Israel became an obsession for Hoffer. The indications that he was Jewish are discussed in my book. One of the most striking is that he could speak Hebrew. He claimed that he learned it “on skid row in Los Angeles.” He was also familiar with German textbooks on botany and chemistry, and these, too, he studied on skid row. That is hard to believe.
About the Author
Tom Bethell is a senior editor of The American Spectator and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, and most recently Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? (2009).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (35) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Tom Bethell
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Jack in Wi.| 4.3.12 @ 8:20AM
Tom Bethell writes another very intresting piece. I used to read an Eric Hofer essay once and a while. But frankly is he worth a book?
SUBVET| 4.3.12 @ 12:45PM
Jack when are you going to the store ??
My dad used to tell me when I would just talk to talk.........son you talk like a man with a paper ass*ole.
Everytime you post this memory comes to mind.
cuban pete| 4.3.12 @ 2:20PM
SUBVET,
Are you from Cincinnati? The first time I heard the paper a***ole phrase it was used by my college roommate from Cincy.
SUBVET| 4.3.12 @ 3:59PM
Pete......comming from a sicilian family growing up my brother and I usually got "the look" or the above phrase. My parents after WWII (1945) left the bronx to CA. born in NY but CA raised.
cuban pete| 4.3.12 @ 4:49PM
My charming wife is from just north of Sicily-Calabria. My dad's family is Tuscano, a little farther up the boot.
Jack in Wi.| 4.3.12 @ 11:43PM
My ancestors come from Avellino on the back side of Mt Vesuvious. You Sicilians always were a little dumber.
steve baker| 4.4.12 @ 11:13PM
We used to call the little white adhesive circles with holes in them used to repair pages in three-ring binders "paper assholes".
JP| 4.3.12 @ 9:13AM
The Alsatian Germans lived adjacent to the Palintinate - othewise known a Franconia. Franconia is part of Upper Bavaria. It's not much of a jump to think he came from Alsatian or Loerhtringen Germans.
Rich Rostrom| 4.3.12 @ 5:29PM
The Palatinate (Pfalz) is immediately north of Alsace, along the Rhine. This area, and the Main Valley to the east, were known as Franconia.
The area just east of that (north of the Danube) was sometimes referred to as the "Upper Palatinate". It was at times attached to Bavaria (different branches of the House of Wittelsbach ruled Bavaria and the Palatinate).
There were also times when the Palatinate itself was attached to Bavaria (including the period from the end of Napoleon in 1815 to the unification of Germany in 1866-1871).
However, Franconia (the upper Main Valley) was never a part of Bavaria until Napoleon awarded it to his Bavarian ally. (They kept for turning against him in 1813-1814.)
Upper Bavaria is an entirely different area - the highlands of southern Bavaria, along the Alps.
In any case, Alsace is 250 km from Bavaria - more than enough for distinct dialects - even if there was a dynastic connection between Bavaria and the Palatinate.
Robert Pinkerton| 4.3.12 @ 9:30AM
Early in 1964, Harry Bridges spoke at Ohio University's Memorial Auditorium. I was a first-semester sophomore there. I was the one who, in the question period, asked about Eric Hoffer (whom I much admire).
Harry Bridges response was: "Eric Hoffer is a good man, a good longshoreman, a good unionist, a good friend of mine, and I disagree with every word he wrote." Sort that one out if you can
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 10:27AM
"Don't they know how badly we need men of mystery--honorable mystery?"
John Ford Noonan
Quoted on the flyleaf of "AMERICAN ICONOCLAST The Life and times of Eric Hoffer
By Tom Shachtman
2011
Hopewell Publications
Petronius| 4.3.12 @ 12:17PM
Hoffer also did a series of interviews for the old NET station in San Francisco before it was PBS. If they were broadcast today, the Occupiers would place PBS under siege and Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose would require heavy sedation.
Ground Control| 4.3.12 @ 12:24PM
"A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is a threat to the worker's sense of worth. Any social order…which can function well with a minimum of leadership will be an anathema to the intellectual."
Interesting. And thus explains the Left Wing's obsession with totalitarian systems, the Nazis, the Communists and Socialists, the Democrat Party. It is and has always been about the "intellectual's" ego and nothing more. An ordered society under the direction of the intellectual is the goal not because it would be a superior society, but because the "intellectual" would be in charge, to the satisfaction of his own ego. For all their lofty rhetoric, the Left is fundamentally all about their own egos, and nothing else. Such pitiable, shallow creatures.
George True| 4.3.12 @ 1:37PM
GC, you summed it up rather succinctly. There is not much to add to Hoffer's original comment, and to your commentary of his comment.
In addition to having their self-important ego constantly stroked, leftists at their core crave and desire the affluent lifestyle that goes along with being in control, but without having to perform the many years of hard work that are usually required to have such a lifestyle. As such, they are parasitic in nature.
JA| 4.3.12 @ 3:19PM
You forgot to add that intellectuals have a deep seated hatred and contempt for ordinary people; they consider them untermensch. We know this merely by witnessing how communist leaders treat their own people; party apparatchiks reserve for themselves the RIGHT to have all the individual, social and material benefits of a modern society, yet, intentionally prohibit the common person from having the same opportunity. Look at how Castro, Kim Jong, Honnecker, Ceaucescu, etc., treat their own people - like mules and cattle.
Herb Meyer | 4.3.12 @ 1:00PM
Does the publisher plan to offer an eBook edition? If so, when? If not, why not?
gene hauber| 4.3.12 @ 1:40PM
I know nothing about Eric Hoffer, but his unwillingness to discuss his early life tells me there is something ugly and shameful in it....just a guess.
Maybe he was involved with the rise of Naziism and regretted it.
Communists , nazi's and liberals are called "true believers" are they not?
just a hunch
his reluctance to reveal his past is very intriguing.
albert constantine jr.| 4.3.12 @ 3:09PM
A man with a German accent born before the turn of the 20th Century who reports a period of blindness in his life and is vague about his personal history…
I’d be checking the Kaiser’s records, particularly to see who was in Hitler’s unit when that “Bohemian Corporal” was gassed during the First World War.
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 7:08PM
Gene and Albert,
Did you know that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig could both speak German? In fact their parents had thick German accents! An awful lot of people in the USA at that time spoke German and English with thick German accents. It's a historical fact. There were thousands of people speaking Pennsylvania Deutsch (Dutch) not far from Philadelphia in those days. Some still speak it there.
The Babe and Lou used to talk to each other in German in the Yankee dugout!
I wonder what they were plotting?
Do you want to look into that too?
albert constantine jr.| 4.3.12 @ 7:16PM
Ausgezeichnet. Ich habe das nicht gewusst. Ich kann auch ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen, aber ich habe die Papierung aus dem Krankenhaus am Geburtstag (bitte um verzeihung, aber ich habe nicht ein umlaut).
I had thought, though, that the Babe was raised in an orphanage. Perhaps a German order of nuns there...
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 7:34PM
Naw! Go to his museum in Baltimore by the new stadium. It is his old home. His father owned a tavern nearby. He was a bit incorrigible as a small kid-threw rocks at the cops and such-so he was sent to the home to learn a trade. He was taught tailoring. He used to keep a sewing machine in his room in NYC when he played for the Yankees and he would turn the collars on his custom made silk shirts when they got frayed so he could still wear them.
albert constantine jr.| 4.3.12 @ 7:56PM
Perhaps I was confusing a stay at an orphanage with a stay at the industrial reform school.
And speaking of plotting, I used to enjoy conspiring mit die andere Deutsche Spracherin im Gymnasium around those who couldn't sprechen, just as the Espanol hablar would do to us (the French class couldn't pull it off, or didn't care enough, I suppose).
I once got to bust on someone doing that in reverse, though. I was in the PX annex at Camp Lejeune, and an Asian woman remarked to her companion in Thai that the seat on the bass boat resembled a toilet (though her language was much cruder). When I remarked in Thai that such was not polite, her reaction was priceless. It also taught me never to presume that others in my presence did not understand whatever languages were being spoken, even if they feigned ignorance.
My comments regarding Mr. Hoffer were more directed at a possible explanation of an absence of American records contemporary to his or his parent's reported immigration, and a cataclysmic world event that occupied his late teenage years. As the Germans at least since Bismarck had reputations as good record keepers (in between the chaos and destruction of a couple of world wars and Weimar, usw.), perhaps answers regarding either his own or his parents' journey could be sought there with better success.
Stuart Koehl| 4.4.12 @ 9:08AM
There was a broad swath of the United States, running from upstate New York, across Pennsylvania and Ohio and on to Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, that was known as "Germania", because of the predominance of German immigrants. In many towns and counties, German was more common than English, right up to World War I (which did more to accelerate German assimilation than anything before). In the 1920s, it was not uncommon for Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to sit on the steps of the Yankee dugout chatting in German. Two world wars ended Germania for good.
Jvermeer51| 4.4.12 @ 9:16PM
Joe Namath can speak Hungarian. With some exceptions, the European enclaves of our eastern cities are no more. In general, a good thing (as people have moved out into the broad swaths of American society) but we have lost a certain interesting flavor.
Jim Wilson | 4.7.12 @ 8:32AM
Just because someone doesn't want to discuss their early life doesn't mean they are hiding a sinister pass. Eric had an unhappy childhood,and lived a hobo life until later in his life. At age 35 his life made a positive turn around compared to his former negative years. Regarding " The true believer" statement regarding the political groups, Eric also classified Christans and most other religionists as true believers .
Ron| 4.3.12 @ 2:49PM
I would be interested for someone to run facial recognition/aging software on a picture of Mr. Hoffer to see what he looked like in the "younger" version...just as an exercise to see if someone perhaps has a photograph of him in some album somewhere...
Ron| 4.3.12 @ 2:55PM
BTW...Wikipedia seems to believe they have answers to his early life...not sure what they based it on...They claim his mother was Elise Goebel and his father as Knut Hoffer...Allegedly when Hoffer's father died, a cabinet maker's union in NYC paid for the funeral...I say allegedly, because it seems the only sources quoted are interviews he gave to others.
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 6:58PM
Gene, Albert and Ron,
Stop speculating and read his recent biography below.
It was published in 2011 by Hopewell Publications. $19.95 paperback. There is a photograph of him on the cover.
Written by Tom Shachtman. Copyright 2011 Tom Shachtman and 2011 Eric Hoffer Estate.
ISBN 978-1-933435-38-1
"This fascinating book arrives at just the right time: Hoffer's views of America are heartening, and HIS DISTRUST OF INTELLECTUALS MUST NOW BE A WARNING. ...................."
Arthur Taylor, former president, CBS, Inc.
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 7:23PM
Mr. Bethell,
Sorry about that recommendation of that rival book above to those gentlemen. Maybe they will buy yours too.
I will be getting a copy of yours for sure!
Excellent essay on a very enigmatic man who has intrigued me since he published "The True Believer."
Bob K.| 4.3.12 @ 7:27PM
Actually I'm not that old. I was introduced to it in college in the 1960's!
PCP Smoker| 4.3.12 @ 9:35PM
Is it on Kindle? If so, I'm buying it
Tina B| 4.4.12 @ 8:51AM
Once again I have to thank the writer and the responders for teaching this old girl new things. Having learned, here at AmSpec, of both John Taylor Gatto, who refers to True Believers frequently, and Charlotte Iserbyt, who also writes of the intellectual elites and their control of our society through compulsory schooling, I now learn about another American, whether by birth or blessing, who told it like it was, with nobody listening.
Thanks to all you thinkers out there, who share your thoughts and learning and experience with others who have arrived via a different path.
johnd2| 4.4.12 @ 8:47PM
The early life of Eric Hoffer means nothing. His whole signifigance at this time is in his monumental writing. He was a thunderer of truth and will join a small group of liberty oriented philosophers whose iteas will one day end the reign of creepy politicians.
Tina B| 4.5.12 @ 7:29AM
Oh, I don't know about that, according to my Book, the only philosophy that will matter in the end is God's and that revealed through His Word and His Son. And it looks like that time is drawing near. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Any of N| 4.16.12 @ 12:49AM
Somebody should link to Tom Bethell's related article in the Hoover Digest:
http://www.hoover.org/publicat.....cle/113461
I can't wait to read the book.