Washington: The celebrated British-American author and columnist Christopher Hitchens died of cancer-related complications at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was 62.
Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June 2010 when his memoir, “Hitch-22”, climbed to the bestsellers list. He died Thursday.
He wrote about his illness and acknowledged years of heavy drinking and smoking. The disclosure promoted a flood of mails to the Vanity Fair, to which he contributed for many years.
Hitchens, who was voted one of the top five public intellectuals in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll, admired George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. He created a flutter in the global literary and intellectual circuits with critiques of Mother Teresa, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Henry Kissinger, among others. (IANS)