Hans Rustad Christopher Hitchens er død, 62 år gammel, melder BBC. Hitchens døde på et sykehus i Texas. Han led av strupekreft, og fikk en lungebetennelse på toppen som tok livet av ham.
– Det kom for tidlig, jeg var ikke forberedt, sa Hitchens til Jeremy Paxman rett før han døde.
I det samme intervjuet uttrykker han beklagelse og sorg over å måtte forlate kone og barn, og for å svikte sine venner.
Hitchens levde livet til det fulle, røkte og nøt alkohol. Prisen ble høy.
Mange vil savne ham.
Han fikk stilt diagnosen i juni 2010, og fikk halvannet år. Det gjør noe med måten du forholder deg til verden på: din tid er rasjonert.
In an August 2010 essay for the magazine he wrote: «I love the imagery of struggle.
«I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.»
Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight programme, in November that year, he reflected on a life that he knew would be cut short: «It does concentrate the mind, of course, to realise that your life is more rationed than you thought it was.»
He wrote for numerous publications including The Times Literary Supplement, the Daily Express, the London Evening Standard, Newsday and The Atlantic.
He was the author of 17 books, including The Trial of Henry Kissinger, God is not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything, and a memoir, Hitch-22.
A collection of his essays, Arguably, was released this year.
«Prospect of death makes me sober, objective.»
Radicalised by the 1960s, Hitchens was often arrested at political rallies and was kicked out of the Labour Party over his opposition to the Vietnam War.He became a correspondent for International Socialism magazine.
In later life he moved away from the left. Following the September 11 attacks he argued with Noam Chomsky and others who suggested that US foreign policy had helped cause the tragedy.
He supported the Iraq War and backed George W Bush for re-election in 2004.
It led to him being accused of betrayal: one former friend called him «a lying, opportunistic, cynical contrarian», another «a drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay».
But he could dish out scathing critiques himself. Bill Clinton he called «a cynical, self-seeking ambitious thug», Henry Kissinger a war criminal and Mother Teresa a fraudulent fanatic.
