I Have a Stack of Hoffer's Books on My Desk

 I met Eric Hoffer in the lobby of the Raphael Hotel in October, 1980, just three weeks before President Reagan's election. He was sitting quietly in a corner armchair, looking out of place in his laborer's clothes. A flat workingman's cap was perched on his head. In his knobbly hands he clasped a knobbly walking stick. Earlier we had corresponded. I had been flattered to receive his letters, written in his artless, looping hand. "Come any time," he had written. "We shall eat, drink and talk."

- Tom Bethell, author of Eric Hoffer, The Longshoreman Philosopher