Hoover acquires Eric
Hoffer papers
The papers of
longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer have been acquired
by the Hoover Institution Archives and now will be
available for research in the archives' reading room.
Hoffer attained national
prominence in 1951 with his first book, The True
Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.
Historian Arthur Schlesinger praised the book as "a
brilliant and original inquiry." It has since become
one of the classics of social philosophy that is both
revered and read by a wide audience. The collection at
Hoover includes the very first outline of The True
Believer, handwritten in pencil, as well as the full
text written in ink with Hoffer's legible script.
The papers amount to 75
linear feet and contain extensive draft writings by
Hoffer, many of them unpublished, and often jotted in
notebooks during his work breaks on San Francisco's
waterfront, said Hoover archivist Elena Danielson. There
is a large volume of correspondence and working papers of
the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of
Violence, to which Hoffer was appointed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson.
The papers, along with
sound recordings, photographs and memorabilia, constitute
a significant source in American intellectual history.
The collection also
contains much biographical material about Hoffer's life.
He was born in New York in 1902, a precocious child who
learned to read very early in both English and German.
Two incidents blocked his
formal education. First, his mother died, and then, at
the age of 7, Hoffer lost his eyesight in an accident.
When his vision returned unexpectedly at age 15, Hoffer
began to compensate for years of blindness with voracious
reading. Lacking an academic diploma, he made a living at
odd jobs and manual labor. His extensive reading
eventually led him to begin writing during the 1930s, and
some of his early drafts can be found in the collection.
In 1943, Hoffer settled in
San Francisco and took a steady job as a longshoreman.
After completing his work day, he did research at the San
Francisco Public Library. Hoffer combined his conclusions
from these studies and his observations from the
waterfront into succinctly worded insights.
"Open his manuscripts
to almost any page, and randomly chosen sentences stand
out on their own as aphorisms," Danielson said. The
collection, she added, will appeal to young students as
well as senior scholars because his writings are easy to
relate to.
Following the success of The
True Believer, Hoffer published a series of
thoughtful and original books, several of which also have
entered the canon, such as The Passionate State of
Mind (1955) and The Ordeal of Change (1963).
As his fame spread, he
responded generously to students and scholars who
contacted him. He held office hours at the University of
California-Berkeley and talked to Stanford students and
faculty in seminars, Danielson said. "Even in an
academic role, he proudly continued to wear his working
class clothes and talk naturally in the manner of a
longshoreman. While his writing style is coolly reasoned
and precise, his speaking was animated and
charismatic."
A Public Broadcasting
Service series captured this aspect of his personality,
and President Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal
of Freedom in 1982. The following year saw the
publication of his last book, Truth Imagined. He
died in 1983 at the age of 80.
Hoffer's themes have
proved to be enduring ones: the nature of mass movements,
social violence, the social role of intellectuals and the
dynamics of social change. "Many of his comments
have proven to be prescient. He noted that the greatest
threat to the Soviet state would come at some future time
with the first attempt to have 'the iron totalitarian
rule relaxed,'" Danielson said.
Among his most widely
quoted aphorisms is a reflection on the nature of
ideology: "We can be absolutely certain only about
things we do not understand" (from The True
Believer).
Hoffer's literary
executor, Lillian Fabilli Osborne, persuaded him to
preserve his papers and rough drafts. She carefully
gathered the materials after his death and eventually
placed them in the Hoover Institution Archives for
safekeeping. Partial support for Hoover's permanent
acquisition of the papers was provided recently by a gift
from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Danielson said,
that allowed the archives to open the collection to
researchers.
Additional information
about the content of the Hoffer papers and access to them
can be obtained by contacting Danielson at 723-3563 or danielson@hoover.stanford.edu. SR
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