Editing Eric Hoffer (section)

==Working-class roots==
Hoffer was influenced by his modest roots and working-class surroundings, seeing in it vast human potential. In a letter to [[Margaret Caroline Anderson|Margaret Anderson]] in 1941, he wrote: "My writing is done in railroad yards while waiting for a freight, in the fields while waiting for a truck, and at noon after lunch. Towns are too distracting." He once remarked, "my writing grows out of my life just as a branch from a tree." When he was called an [[intellectual]], he insisted that he simply was a longshoreman. Hoffer has been [[philosopher nicknames|dubbed]] by some authors a "longshoreman philosopher."<ref name="hoover.org" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Dirda |first=Michael |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-eric-hoffer-the-longshoreman-philosopher-by-tom-bethell/2012/05/09/gIQAasr0DU_story.html |title=Book World: Blue-collar intellectual by 'Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher' |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2012-05-09 |access-date=2019-01-16}}</ref>