… The University Bookman: Longshoreman, Philosopher, Mystery. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hoffer, despite a Germanic accent, claimed an American nativity story; and despite once listing 1898 as the year of his birth, later maintained a 1902 birth date. Even these basic “facts” about the author of The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements can’t be truly believed. He certainly lived in Franklin Roosevelt’s America, detailing life in a Works Progress Administration camp, filling out a Social Security form, and registering for the draft in 1942. But no birth certificate, baptismal document, report card, passport, driver’s license, or any other documentation verifies Hoffer’s existence prior to the late 1930s.
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