http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-eric-hoffer-the-longshoreman-philosopher-by-tom-bethell/2012/05/09/gIQAasr0DU_story.html
What a fascinating character. Eric Hoffer: the autodidact, prolific writer and questor.
Real writers, real thinkers and doubters can have the most unusual backgrounds, being from unexpected professions while retaining their focus on writing. Not at all what you would expect. Not all are experts and elites—protected as long as they teach, lecture, navigate the bureaucracy of universities and play the baronial game of the academic departments. Maybe being a part-time Longshoreman is ideal for a writer? Active, with some time off.
It seems this one was free. Less orthodox and certainly not produced by a university or a typical now-lengthy school-system, but steadily assembled by his own will. Quite possibly an illegal migrant, how deeply they are stigmatised now. He was a man, a writer who followed his own interests into publications.
Note: I have heard mention of Eric Hoffer before. In a history unit on Nazi studies, and another unit on Fundamentalism. He has been relied upon and quoted, even by non-Longshoremen academics.
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