Editing Eric Hoffer (section)

==Early life==
Many elements of Hoffer's early life are unverified,<ref name= "hoover">{{cite web| url= http://www.hoover.org/research/longshoreman-philosopher| title=The Longshoreman Philosopher | publisher= Hoover Institution | website = hoover.org| access-date=6 April 2015}}</ref> but in autobiographical statements, Hoffer claimed to have been born in 1902<ref>{{cite web | url= https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-27792-3041-44?cc=2000219 | title=California > Monterey > Monterey Judicial Township > 27-34 Monterey Judicial Township outside Monterey City bounded by (N) township line; (E) township line; (S) Highway 117; (W) Monterey City Limits, Highway 56; also Seaside (part) > image 102 of 126; citing NARA digital publication of T627 | work=United States Census | year = 1940 | via=FamilySearch.org |accessdate= 22 December 2014 | publisher = National Archives and Records Administration| place = Washington, DC}}</ref><ref name= "hoover" /> in [[The Bronx]], [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], to Knut and Elsa (Goebel) Hoffer.<ref name="bookref1">{{cite book| last=Knutson|first=Harold|title=Annual Obituary 1983|publisher=St. James| year=1984|page=254|isbn=0-912289-07-4}}</ref> His parents were immigrants from [[Alsace]], then part of [[Imperial Germany]]. By age five, Hoffer could already read in both [[English language|English]] and his parents' native [[German language|German]].<ref name="Truth Imagined">''Truth Imagined''</ref><ref name="hoover.org">{{cite web |url= http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3063261.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2006-12-29 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070525200245/http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3063261.html |archive-date=May 25, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> When he was five, his mother fell down the stairs with him in her arms. He later recalled, "I lost my sight at the age of seven. Two years before, my mother and I fell down a flight of stairs. She did not recover and died in that second year after the fall. I lost my sight and, for a time, my memory."<ref>''Truth Imagined'', p. 1</ref> Hoffer spoke with a pronounced German accent all his life, and spoke the language fluently. He was raised by a live-in relative or servant, a German immigrant named Martha. His eyesight inexplicably returned when he was 15. Fearing he might lose it again, he seized on the opportunity to read as much as he could. His recovery proved permanent, but Hoffer never abandoned his reading habit.

Hoffer was a young man when he also lost his father. The [[cabinetmaker]]'s [[trade union|union]] paid for Knut Hoffer's funeral and gave Hoffer about $300 insurance money. He took a bus to [[Los Angeles]] and spent the next 10 years wandering, as he remembered, "up and down the land, dodging hunger and grieving over the world."<ref name= "The Longshoreman and the Masses">{{cite web|title=The Longshoreman and the Masses| url= https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2019/6/19/the-working-mans-philosopher |website=The Attic| date= June 19, 2019 |access-date=31 July 2019}}</ref> Hoffer eventually landed on [[Skid Row, Los Angeles|Skid Row]], reading, occasionally writing, and working at [[Handyman|odd jobs]].<ref name= "Truth Imagined"/>

In 1931, he considered [[suicide]] by drinking a solution of [[oxalic acid]], but he could not bring himself to do it.<ref>''Truth Imagined'', pp. 35–39</ref> He left Skid Row and became a [[migrant worker]], following the harvests in California. He acquired a [[library card]] where he worked, dividing his time "between the books and the [[brothel]]s." He also [[prospecting|prospected for gold]] in the mountains. Snowed in for the winter, he read the ''[[Essays (Montaigne)|Essays]]'' by [[Michel de Montaigne]]. Montaigne impressed Hoffer deeply, and Hoffer often made reference to him. He also developed a respect for America's [[underclass]], which he said was "lumpy with talent."