Christopher Hitchens news stories on Newser

Hitchens' Last Words: 'Capitalism, Downfall'

Mark Russell — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 05:58:58 CDT

Intellectuals and celebrities from Salman Rushdie to Sean Penn turned out yesterday for a memorial service in New York for notorious writer Christopher Hitchens, who died last December , reports the Guardian . "He was an auto-contrarian: he contradicted himself as if he felt the only person really worth arguing with was...

Hitchens Slammed Vatican in Final Interview

Mark Russell — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:22:00 CST

With barely two months left to live, Christopher Hitchens gave one last interview, to fellow atheist Richard Dawkins, taking the opportunity to bash the Catholic Church and totalitarianism. In the New Statesman interview, Hitchens' harshest words were for the Catholic Church, saying that every fascist government in Europe in the...

Booze and Writing: the Ideal Combo?

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:32:00 CST

Christopher Hitchens defended his prolific smoking and drinking habits even though they probably killed him. "Whatever enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument and conversation," he once wrote, "is worth it to me." But does boozing really aid the creative process? Slate takes a look, perusing anecdotal evidence...

Hitchens-Haters Get Their Day Online

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:13:55 CST

Sure Christopher Hitchens was erudite, bold, and endowed with a stunning memory . But now that he's been dead for two days, the complaints are rolling in ... and they're none-too-pretty: "His writing contained provocation aplenty, but far too much of it ... a few hundred words of dashed off substance wrapped around...

Final Hitchens Book to Hit Shelves Next Year

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:26:05 CST

For fans of Christopher Hitchens , one final book. A memoir entitled Mortality will be released in early 2012; it's based on a series of articles the journalist wrote for Vanity Fair describing his battle with esophageal cancer, reports the Guardian . A spokesman noted that the book had been in the...

What I Learned While Sharing an Office With Hitchens

Kate Schwartz — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:09:05 CST

There is no shortage of reflections on the life of Christopher Hitchens today, filled with memories and anecdotes that all seem to include the word "cocktail." Writing for Slate , David Corn recounts his "Hitchens tale," one that occurred some three decades ago while the two shared a tiny, windowless office...

Christopher Hitchens Dead at 62

Rob Quinn — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:20:00 CST

Author, intellectual, and firebrand atheist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 after a long fight with esophageal cancer. The British-born writer, who had lived in Washington DC since 1982, chronicled his illness with the same caustic insight he directed at targets including Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa, and...

2011's Top 10 Books

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:10:05 CST

If you need a book recommendation for holiday reading, look no further than the New York Times ' list of the 10 best books of the year. Five are fiction and five non-fiction: 11/22/63 by Stephen King : A time portal sends an English teacher back to 1958 to try and...

Pakistan Makes US Look Like Chumps

Kevin Spak — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:59:31 CDT

Last week, Admiral Mike Mullen called out Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency “as the most adroit double-dealing profiteer from terrorism in the entire region,” Christopher Hitchens writes for Slate . Mullen accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack on the US embassy in Kabul, and Hitchens believes him; after all, there’s no reason...