Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist.[2][3] He authored18 books on faith,religion, culture, politics, and literature.
Hitchens was born inPortsmouth,Hampshire, the elder of two boys; his brother,Peter, became asocially conservative journalist.[20] Their parents, Commander Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987) and Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973), met in Scotland when serving in theRoyal Navy duringWorld War II.[21] His mother had been a Wren, a member of theWomen's Royal Naval Service.[22] She was ofJewish origin, something that Hitchens discovered when he was 38; he thus came to identify as a Jew.[23][24][25]
Hitchens often referred to his father simply as 'the Commander'. Eric Hitchens was deployed onHMS Jamaica, which took part in the sinking of theScharnhorst in theBattle of the North Cape on 26 December 1943. He paid tribute to his father's contribution to the war: "Sending a Nazi convoy-raider to the bottom is a better day's work than any I have ever done." Eric's naval career required the family to move from base to base throughout Britain and its colonies; including toMalta, where Peter Hitchens was born inSliema in 1951.[26] Eric later worked as a bookkeeper for boatbuilders, speedboat manufacturers, and a prep school.[21][27]
In the 1960s, Hitchens joined the political left; drawn by disagreement over theVietnam War, nuclear weapons, racism, and oligarchy, including that of "the unaccountable corporation".[32] He expressed affinity with the politically charged counter-cultural and protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He avoided the recreational drug-use of the time, saying "in my cohort we were slightly anti-hedonistic ... it made it very much easier for police provocation to occur, because the planting of drugs was something that happened to almost everyone one knew."[33] Hitchens was inspired to become a journalist after reading a piece byJames Cameron.[28]
Hitchens wasbisexual during his younger days; and joked that, as he aged, his appearance "declined to the point where only women would go to bed with [him]".[34] He said he had sexual relations with two male students at Oxford who would later become government ministers during thepremiership of Margaret Thatcher, although he would not reveal their names publicly.[34]
Early in his career Hitchens began working as a correspondent for the magazineInternational Socialism,[39] published by the International Socialists, the forerunners of today's BritishSocialist Workers Party. This group was broadly Trotskyist, but differed from more orthodox Trotskyist groups in its refusal to defend communist states as "workers' states". Their slogan was "Neither Washington nor Moscow but International Socialism".
In 1971 after spending a year travelling the United States on a scholarship, Hitchens went to work at theTimes Higher Education Supplement where he served as a social science correspondent.[40] Hitchens was fired after six months in the job.[40] Next he was a researcher forITV'sWeekend World.[41]
In November 1973, while in Greece, Hitchens reported on the constitutional crisis of themilitary junta. It became his first leading article for theNew Statesman.[28] In December 1977 Hitchens interviewed Argentine dictatorJorge Rafael Videla, a conversation he later described as "horrifying".[43] In 1977, unhappy at theNew Statesman, Hitchens moved to theDaily Express, where he became a foreign correspondent. He returned to theNew Statesman in 1978 where he became assistant editor and then foreign editor.[41]
Hitchens became a contributing editor ofVanity Fair in 1992,[50] writing ten columns a year. He leftThe Nation in 2002 after profoundly disagreeing with other contributors over the Iraq War.[51]
There is speculation that Hitchens was the inspiration forTom Wolfe's character Peter Fallow in the 1987 novelThe Bonfire of the Vanities,[46] but others—including Hitchens—believe it to beSpy Magazine's "Ironman Nightlife Decathlete",Anthony Haden-Guest.[52] In 1987, Hitchens's father died ofcancer of the oesophagus, the same disease that would later claim his own life.[53] In April 2007, Hitchens became a US citizen; he later stated that he saw himself asAnglo-American.[e][54]
He became a media fellow at theHoover Institution in September 2008.[55] AtSlate, he usually wrote under the news-and-politics columnFighting Words.[56]
Hitchens spent part of his early career in journalism as a foreign correspondent inCyprus.[57] Through his work there he met his first wife, Eleni Meleagrou, aGreek Cypriot, with whom he had two children, Alexander and Sophia. His son, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, born in 1984, has worked as a policy researcher in London. Hitchens continued writing essay-style correspondence pieces from a variety of locales, includingChad,Uganda,[58] and theDarfur region ofSudan.[59] In 1991, he received aLannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.[60]
Hitchens met Carol Blue in Los Angeles in 1989 and they married in 1991. Hitchens called it love at first sight.[61] In 1999, Hitchens and Blue, both harsh critics ofBill Clinton, submitted an affidavit to the trial managers of theRepublican Party in theimpeachment of Clinton. Therein they swore that their then-friendSidney Blumenthal had describedMonica Lewinsky as a stalker. This allegation contradicted Blumenthal's own sworn deposition in the trial,[62] and it resulted in a hostile exchange of opinion in the public sphere between Hitchens and Blumenthal. Following the publication of Blumenthal'sThe Clinton Wars, Hitchens wrote several pieces in which he accused Blumenthal of manipulating the facts.[62][63] The incident ended their friendship and sparked a personal crisis for Hitchens, who was stridently criticised by friends for what they saw as a cynical and ultimately politically futile act.[23]
Before Hitchens's political shift, the American author and polemicistGore Vidal spoke of Hitchens as his "dauphin" or "heir".[64][65] In 2010 Hitchens attacked Vidal in aVanity Fair piece headlined "Vidal Loco", calling him a "crackpot" for his adoption of9/11 conspiracy theories.[66][67] On the back of Hitchens's memoirHitch-22, among the praise from notable figures, Vidal's endorsement of Hitchens as his successor is crossed out in red and annotated "NO, C.H." Hitchens's strong advocacy of the war in Iraq gained him a wider readership, and in September 2005 he was named as fifth on the list of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" byForeign Policy andProspect magazines.[68] An online poll ranked the 100 intellectuals, but the magazines noted that the rankings of Hitchens (5),Noam Chomsky (1), andAbdolkarim Soroush (15) were partly due to their respective supporters' publicising of the vote. Hitchens later responded to his ranking with a few articles about his status as such.[69][70]
Hitchens did not leave his position writing forThe Nation until after theSeptember 11 attacks, stating that he felt the magazine had arrived at a position "thatJohn Ashcroft is a greater menace thanOsama bin Laden".[71] The September 11 attacks "exhilarated" him, bringing into focus "a battle between everything I love and everything I hate" and strengthening his embrace of an interventionist foreign policy that challenged "fascism with an Islamic face".[49] His numerous editorials in support of theIraq War caused some to label him aneoconservative, although Hitchens insisted he was not "a conservative of any kind", and his friendIan McEwan described him as representing the anti-totalitarian left.[72]
Hitchens recalls in his memoir having been "invited byBernard-Henri Lévy to write an essay on political reconsiderations for his magazineLa Règle du jeu [fr]. I gave it the partly ironic title: 'Can One Be a Neoconservative?' Impatient with this, some copy editor put it on the cover as 'How I Became a Neoconservative.' Perhaps this was an instance of theCartesian principle as opposed to the English empiricist one: It was decided that I evidently was what I apparently only thought." Indeed, in a 2010 BBC interview, he stated that he "still [thought] like a Marxist" and considered himself "a leftist".[73]
In 2007, Hitchens published one of his most controversial articles titled "Why Women Aren't Funny" inVanity Fair. While providing no empirical evidence, he argued that there is less societal pressure for women to practice humour and that "women who do it play by men's rules".[74] Over the following year,Vanity Fair published several letters that it received, objecting to the tone or premise of the article, as well as a rebuttal byAlessandra Stanley.[75] Amid further criticism, Hitchens reiterated his position in a video and written response.[76][77]
In 2007 Hitchens's work forVanity Fair won theNational Magazine Award in the category "Columns and Commentary".[78]He was a finalist in the same category in 2008 for some of his columns inSlate but lost out toMatt Taibbi ofRolling Stone.[79]Hitch-22 was short-listed for the 2010National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. He won the National Magazine Award for Columns about Cancer in 2011.[80][81] Hitchens also served on the advisory board ofSecular Coalition for America and offered advice to the Coalition on the acceptance and inclusion of nontheism in American life.[82] In December 2011, prior to his death,Asteroid57901 Hitchens was named after him.[83]
Hitchens wrote a monthly essay inThe Atlantic magazine[84] and occasionally contributed to other literary journals. One of his books,Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, collected these works. InWhy Orwell Matters, he defends Orwell's writings against modern critics as relevant today and progressive for his time. In the 2008 bookChristopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left, many literary critiques are included of essays and other books of writers, such asDavid Horowitz andEdward Said.
My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, anyplace, anytime. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.
In 2009 Hitchens was listed byForbes magazine as one of the 25 "most influential liberals" in the US media.[93] The article also noted that he would "likely be aghast to find himself on this list", as it reduces his self-styled radicalism to mere liberalism. Hitchens's political perspectives also appear in his wide-ranging writings, which include many dialogues.[94] He said ofAyn Rand'sobjectivism, "I have always found it quaint, and rather touching, that there is a movement in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough."[95]
Hitchens disagreed with the premise of a Jewish homeland[96] and had said of himself, "I am anAnti-Zionist. I'm one of those people of Jewish descent who believes that Zionism would be a mistake even if there were noPalestinians."[97]
Having long described himself as a socialist and a Marxist, Hitchens began his break from the established political left after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left tothe controversy overThe Satanic Verses,[98] followed by what he saw as the left's embrace of Bill Clinton and the anti-war movement's opposition toNATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s.[99] He later became a so-called liberal hawk and supported thewar on terror, but he had some reservations, such as his characterisation ofwaterboarding as torture after voluntarily undergoing the procedure.[100][101] In January 2006, he joined four other individuals and four organisations, including theACLU andGreenpeace, as plaintiffs in a lawsuit,ACLU v. NSA, challenging Bush'sNSA warrantless surveillance; the lawsuit was filed by the ACLU.[102][103]
Hitchens heldcomplex views on abortion; being ethically opposed to it in most instances, and believing that afoetus was entitled topersonhood, while holding ambiguous and changing viewson its legality.[107] In a 1988 interview withCrisis Magazine, Hitchens wrote: "It might interest your readers to know that Margaret Thatcher voted to keep capital punishment, to keep homosexuality criminal, to make divorce harder to get, andfor the abortion bill. I gather that she's since changed her position on the latter. My own vote would have been, as so often, exactly the reverse of hers."[10] However, Hitchens argued that the issue was cynically used by self-describedpro-life politicians, and doubted that they sincerely desired to legally prohibit abortion.[107] In the same 1988 interview withCrisis Magazine he stated:[10] "Once you allow that the occupant of the womb is even potentially a life, it cuts athwart any glib invocation of "the woman's right to choose"[10] and that:
I would like to see something much broader, much more visionary. We need a new compact between society and the woman. It's a progressive compact because it is aimed at the future generation. It would restrict abortion in most circumstances. Now I know most women don't like having to justify their circumstances to someone. 'How dare you presume to subject me to this?' some will say.
But sorry, lady, this is an extremely grave social issue. It's everybody's business.[10]
Hitchens was a supporter of theEuropean Union. In an appearance on C-SPAN in 1993, Hitchens said, "As of 1992, there is now a Euro passport that makes you free to travel within the boundaries of ... member countries, and I've always liked the idea of European unity, and so I held out for a Euro passport. So I travel as a European."[111] Speaking at the launch of his brotherPeter's book,The Abolition of Britain, at Conway Hall in London, Hitchens denounced the so-calledEurosceptic movement, describing it as "theBritish version of fascism". He went on to say, "Scepticism is a title of honour. These people are not sceptical. They're fanatical. They're dogmatic".[112]
WritersNancy Gibbs andMichael Duffy published an article inTime in 2007,[113] claiming that Hitchens, while promoting his bookGod Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, described the Christian evangelistBilly Graham as "a self-conscious fraud" and "a disgustingly evil man" and that the evangelist had made a living by "going around spouting lies to young people. What a horrible career. I gather it's soon to be over. I certainly hope so".[114]
They challenged Hitchens's suggestion that Graham went into ministry to make money. They argued that during his career Graham "turn[ed] down million-dollar television and Hollywood offers". While broadly condemning Hitchens's comments at a time when Graham's health was failing, they mention he was "on more solid ground" when criticising Graham's "vile", if later retracted, remarks about Jews in his 1972Oval Office meeting withRichard Nixon.[115]
Because the man with many monikers in many ways embodies his country and because this election cycle is now so absurd, and so much up for grabs, it is unwise to exclude anything.... The best guess has to be that here's a man who hates to be alone, who needs approval and reinforcement, who talks a better game than he plays, who is crude, hyperactive, emotional, and optimistic.[116]
Hitchens had previously written that Trump demonstrated how "nobody is more covetous and greedy than those who have far too much".[117]
Hitchens was an antitheist, and said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in God were correct", but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion".[118] He often spoke against theAbrahamic religions. When asked by readers ofThe Independent what he considered to be the "axis of evil", Hitchens replied "Christianity, Judaism,Islam – the three leading monotheisms".[119] In debates Hitchens often posed what has become known as "Hitchens's Challenge": to name at least one moral action that a person without a faith (i.e. an atheist or antitheist) could not possibly perform, and conversely, to name one immoral action that only a person with a faith could perform or has performed in the past.[120][121]
In his best-sellerGod Is Not Great, Hitchens expanded his criticism to include all religions, including those rarely attacked by Western secularists, such asHinduism,Buddhism andneo-paganism. Hitchens said that organised religion is "the main source of hatred in the world", calling it "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: [it] ought to have a great deal on its conscience".[122] In the same work Hitchens says that humanity therefore needs a renewedEnlightenment.[123] The book received mixed responses, ranging from praise inThe New York Times for his "logical flourishes and conundrums"[124] to accusations of "intellectual and moral shabbiness" in theFinancial Times.[125]God Is Not Great was nominated for aNational Book Award on 10 October 2007.[126]
That year Hitchens began a series of written debates on the question "Is Christianity Good for the World?" with the Christian theologian and pastorDouglas Wilson, published inChristianity Today magazine.[132] This exchange eventually became a book with the same title published in 2008. During their promotional tour of the book, they were accompanied by the producerDarren Doane's film crew. Thence Doane produced the filmCollision: Is Christianity GOOD for the World?, which was released on 27 October 2009.[133][134] On 4 April 2009, Hitchens debatedWilliam Lane Craig on the existence of God atBiola University.[135] On 19 October 2009,Intelligence Squared explored the question "Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?".[136]John Onaiyekan andAnn Widdecombe argued that it was, while Hitchens joinedStephen Fry in arguing that it was not. The latter won the debate according to an audience poll.[137]
Hitchens referred to 'Islamophobia' as a "fake term" that is "dangerous" because it "insinuates that any reservations about Islam mustipso facto be 'phobic'. A phobia is an irrational fear or dislike. Islamic preaching very often manifests precisely this feature, which is why suspicion of it is by no means irrational".[138] On 5 October 2010, Hitchens debated withTariq Ramadan as to whether Islam was a religion of peace, at92NY.[139]
On 26 November 2010, Hitchens appeared in Toronto, Ontario, at theMunk Debates, where he debated religion with the former British prime ministerTony Blair, a convert toRoman Catholicism. Blair argued that religion is a force for good, while Hitchens argued against.[140]
Throughout these debates, Hitchens became known for his persuasive and enthusiastic rhetoric. "Wit and eloquence", "verbal barbs and linguistic dexterity", and "self-reference, literary engagement and hyperbole" are all elements of his speeches.[141][142][143] The term "hitch-slap" has been used as an informal term among his supporters for a carefully crafted remark designed to humiliate his opponents.[143][144] Hitchens's line "one asks wistfully if there is no provision in the procedures of military justice for them to be taken out and shot", condemning the perpetrators of theAbu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, was cited byThe Humanist as an example.[145] A tribute inPolitico stated that this was a trait Hitchens shared with his fellow atheist and intellectualGore Vidal.[146]
Hitchens was raised nominally Christian and attended Christian boarding schools, but from an early age he declined to participate in communal prayers. Later in life, Hitchens discovered that he was of Jewish descent on his mother's side and that his Jewish ancestors were immigrants from Eastern Europe (includingPoland).[28][147] Hitchens was married twice, first to Eleni Meleagrou, aGreek Cypriot, in 1981; the couple had two children, a son and a daughter.[148]
In 1991 Hitchens married his second wife, Carol Blue, an American screenwriter,[23] in a ceremony held at the apartment of Victor Navasky, editor ofThe Nation. They had a daughter together, Antonia,[23] a writer and journalist currently onThe New Yorker staff.[149]
Hitchens considered reading, writing, and public speaking not as a job or career but as "what I am, who I am, [and] what I love."[150][j]
In November 1973 Hitchens's mother died by suicide inAthens in a pact with her lover, adefrocked clergyman named Timothy Bryan.[22] The pair overdosed on sleeping pills in adjoining hotel rooms and Bryan slashed his wrists in the bathtub. Hitchens flew alone to Athens to recover his mother's body, initially under the impression that she had been murdered.
The journalist and authorPeter Hitchens is Christopher's younger brother by two years. Christopher said in 2005 the main difference between the two is belief in the existence of God.[152] Peter became a member of theInternational Socialists (forerunners of the modernSocialist Workers' Party) from 1968 to 1975 (beginning at age 17) after Christopher introduced him to them.[153]
The brothers reportedly fell out after Peter wrote a 2001 article inThe Spectator which allegedly characterised Christopher as aStalinist.[152][154] After the birth of Peter's third child, the brothers were reconciled.[155] Peter's review ofGod Is Not Great led to a public argument between the brothers but no renewed estrangement.[156]
On 8 June 2010, Hitchens was on tour in New York promoting his memoirsHitch-22 when he was taken into emergency care suffering from a severepericardial effusion. Soon after, he announced he was postponing his tour to undergo treatment foroesophageal cancer.[161]
In aVanity Fair piece published in 2010, titled "Topic of Cancer",[53] he stated that he was undergoing treatment for cancer. He said that he recognised the long-term prognosis was far from positive and he would be a "very lucky person to live another five years".[162] A heavy smoker and drinker since his teenage years, Hitchens acknowledged that these habits were likely to have contributed to his illness.[19] During his illness, Hitchens was under the care ofFrancis Collins and was the subject of Collins's new cancer treatment, which maps out thehuman genome and selectively targets damagedDNA.[k][163]
According toChristopher Buckley, before Hitchens died, his estranged friendSidney Blumenthal wrote to Hitchens. Buckley said the letter contained words of "tenderness and comfort and implicit forgiveness".[164]
Former British prime minister Tony Blair and Hitchens at the Munk debate on religion, Toronto, November 2010
Former British prime ministerTony Blair said, "Christopher Hitchens was a complete one-off, an amazing mixture of writer, journalist, polemicist and unique character. He was fearless in the pursuit of truth and any cause in which he believed. And there was no belief he held that he did not advocate with passion, commitment and brilliance. He was an extraordinary, compelling and colourful human being whom it was a privilege to know."[170][171]
Richard Dawkins said of Hitchens, "He was apolymath, a wit, immensely knowledgeable, and a valiant fighter against all tyrants, including imaginary supernatural ones."[171] Dawkins later described Hitchens as "probably the best orator I've ever heard", and called his death "an enormous loss".[172]
Christopher was a beacon of knowledge and light in a world that constantly threatens to extinguish both. He had the courage to accept the world for just what it is and not what he wanted it to be. That's the highest praise, I believe, one can give to any intellect. He understood that the universe doesn't care about our existence or welfare, and he epitomized the realization that our lives have meaning only to the extent that we give them meaning.[173][174]
The British conservative author and friend of HitchensDouglas Murray paid tribute to him in an article inThe Spectator, recalling personal experiences with him.[180]
Three weeks before Hitchens's death,George Eaton of theNew Statesman wrote, "He is determined to ensure that he is not remembered simply as a 'lefty who turned right' or as a contrarian and provocateur. Throughout his career, he has retained a commitment to the Enlightenment values of reason, secularism, and pluralism. His targets—Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, God—are chosen not at random, but rather because they have offended one or more of these principles. The tragedy of Hitchens's illness is that it came at a time when he enjoyed a larger audience than ever. The great polemicist is certain to be remembered, but, as he was increasingly aware, perhaps not as he would like."[181]The Chronicle of Higher Education asked whether Hitchens was the last public intellectual.[182]
During an interview with Alex O'Connor, the discussion turned toLarry Taunton's bookThe Faith of Christopher Hitchens, released after Hitchens's death, which claimed that Hitchens started to flirt with spirituality.Richard Dawkins replied, "It's a disgraceful book. [Taunton] took advantage of a long car journey he had with Christopher Hitchens and I think Christopher was probably being polite and talking seriously to him about his religion." Dawkins added, "Religious apologists are so eager to get deathbed conversions that you have to watch it. Well actually, Christopher I think himself said that, 'if anybody claims that I had a deathbed conversion you can be absolutely sure that I wasn't in my right mind when it happened'."[183]David Frum, writing inThe Atlantic, states, "In the months before he died, Hitchens repeatedly and emphatically warned that claims like Taunton's would be forthcoming and should be disbelieved."[184] In his posthumously published book,Mortality, Hitchens wrote, "If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does."[185]
In 2015, an annual prize of $50,000 was established in his honour by The Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation for "an author or journalist whose work reflects a commitment to free expression and inquiry, a range and depth of intellect, and a willingness to pursue the truth without regard to personal or professional consequence". The foundation's website states the Hitchens Prize "seeks to advance what he was dedicated to throughout his life: vigorous, honest, and open public debate and discussion, with no tolerance of orthodoxy, no reverence for authority, and a belief in reasoned dialogue as the best path to the truth". The 2024 winner wasErrol Morris.[186]
Said, Edward W.; Hitchens, Christopher, eds. (2001) [1988].Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. London: Verso.ISBN1859843409.OCLC47969559.
Hitchens, Christopher (2014) [1988].Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports (1st ed.). New York: Hill and Wang.ISBN978-0809078677.OCLC1012775824.
Hitchens, Christopher (1990).The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favorite Fetish. London: Chatto & Windus.ISBN978-0701135553.
2007:God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Twelve/Hachette Book Group USA/Warner Books,ISBN0446579807 / Published in the UK asGod is not Great: The Case Against Religion, Atlantic Books,ISBN978-1843545866
^After the September 11 attacks of 2001, Hitchens was widely perceived as having migrated to the right on the political spectrum, actively campaigning for the invasion of Iraq and deposal of Saddam Hussein and endorsing George W. Bush in the 2004 US presidential election. Hitchens dropped his column forThe Nation in 2002. He maintained that the shifts in his political allegiances were motivated by the right's stronger and more-interventionist stance against what he deemed 'fascism with an Islamic face'.[6]
^I asked him if he'd be up for writing a column on gun control. He told me that he'd love to. But he wanted to let me know up front that he was opposed to controls.[11]
^I am [not a] part of the generalised agnosticism of our culture. I am not even an atheist so much as I am an anti-theist ... all religions are versions of the same untruth ... the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful ... cradle-to-grave divine supervision; a permanent surveillance and monitoring ... I am [not] privy to the secrets of the universe or its creator ... even [the best of the theisms] are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism.[17]
^"The moment where everything went wrong is the moment when the Jewish Hellenists were defeated by the Jewish messiahs, the celebration now benignly known as Hanukkah." — Hitchens[130]
^"As a consequence of the successfulMaccabean revolt against Hellenism, so it is said, a puddle of olive oil that should have lasted only for one day managed to burn for eight days. Wow! Certain proof, not just of an Almighty, but of an Almighty with a special fondness for fundamentalists."[131]
^I like to think that I have a life rather than a job or than a career, and it's all to do with reading and writing: The only two things I was ever any good at—and public speaking, which I can also do. that's how I make my living, but it's also what I am, who I am, what I love.[150]
^Then he dozed a little, and then roused himself and uttered a couple of words that were close to inaudible. Steve asked him to repeat them. There were two:
^Cottee, Simon; Cushman, Thomas, eds. (2008).Christopher Hitchens and His Critics : Terror, Iraq, and the Left. New York, London: New York University Press. p. 168.ISBN978-0814716861.OCLC183392372.
^ab"Fetal Distraction".Vanity Fair. 1 February 2003.Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved26 November 2022.
^Hitchens, Christopher (2 October 2017) [24 January 1994]."The Myth of Gun Control".The Nation.Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved6 August 2023 – via Scraps from the Loft.
^Kirwan-Taylor, Helen (11 December 2009)."For the sake of argument".Wall Street Journal.Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved26 December 2017.
^Lipinski, Jed; McGeveran, Tom (1 August 2012)."Gore Vidal, gentleman bitch". Politico.Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved26 December 2017.
^Hitchens, Christopher (2010).Hitch-22: A Memoir. Twelve. p. 352.ISBN978-0446540339.
^Hitchens, Christopher (2012).Mortality. McClelland & Stewart.ISBN978-0771039225.
^"Christopher Hitchens: tributes".The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 16 December 2011. p. 15.Contemporaries, friends and admirers of Christopher Hitchens, who has died aged 62, have paid tribute to the contrarian
