Vanity Fair essayist
Christopher Hitchens dead at 62
December 16,
2011
Christopher Hitchens, the prosaic essayist whose
pungent social commentary delighted his fans, enraged his
detractors and engaged the legion of readers who devoured his work,
has died from complications of esophageal cancer. He was 62.
"There will never be another like Christopher," said
Vanity Fair magazine editor Graydon Carter, who called him "a man
of ferocious intellect."
"Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who
knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."
Regarded as one of the English-speaking world's great
public intellectuals, Hitchens, who died Thursday, churned out
literary criticism and tackled societal and political topics in
magazines and books.
He wrote wry
monthly columns for Vanity Fair. He penned articles for the New
Statesman, the London Evening Standard, London's Daily Express, The
Nation, Harper's, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, New
York Newsday, The Atlantic and Slate.
Known for
his hard drinking and smoking, Hitchens "was as vibrant on the page
as he was at the bar," Carter said.
Hitchens
became a strong voice for atheism and a strident critic of
religion, writing a book called "God Is Not Great: How Religion
Poisons Everything."
As Hitchens
went through his public battle with cancer, he went on talk shows
and participated in lectures and debates where he defended atheism
and vigorously took on religion.
"Humanity
has lost a powerful stalwart for atheism," said Roy Speckhardt,
executive director of the American Humanist Association.
"Christopher Hitchens changed the discussion about religion and
nonbelief by championing public criticism of theology."
Over the
years, Hitchens had been solidly on the political left, but his
beliefs couldn't be neatly categorized. He became supportive of the
war in Iraq because of what he saw as the dangers of radical Islam.
As his condition worsened, he kept on producing lucid material.
Born in
Portsmouth, England, in 1949 and graduated from Oxford University
in 1970, Hitchens eventually settled in the United States and
became an American citizen.
He landed a
job with Vanity Fair as a contributing editor in November 1992.
"Christopher
was a master of the stunning line and the biting quip, and he had
few equals in the sphere of commentary, let alone social life," a
Vanity Fair statement said.
CNN's Piers
Morgan tweeted about Hitchens from his official Twitter page
Thursday night.
"RIP
Christopher Hitchens - greatest literary provocateur of my
lifetime. Huge talent, huge loss," Morgan wrote.
In 2010,
Hitchens had a public debate with his younger brother, Peter -- a
Christian and a writer -- on whether civilization can survive
without God.
"There used
to be a word which could be used unironically," he said. "People
meant what they said when they said the word Christendom. There was
a Christian world. Partly evolved, partly carved out by the sword,
partly defended by the sword, giving way and expanding at times.
But it was a meaningful name for a community of belief and value
that endured for many, many centuries. It had many splendors to its
name, but it's all gone now."
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-16/entertainment/showbiz_christopher-hitchens-obit_1_christopher-hitchens-religion-poisons-atheism?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ