Memorial gatherings and the body of Christ(opher)

Mr Steve Wasserman, Christopher Hitchens' literary agent, kindly replied to my query about a possible memorial. Posted with permission.

"In accordance with Christopher’s wishes, his body was donated to medical research. Memorial gatherings will occur next year."

Forced Merriment: The True Spirit of Christmas

By Christopher Hitchens

Ever since Tom Lehrer recorded his imperishable anti-Christmas ditty all those years ago, the small but growing minority who view the end of December with existential dread has had a seasonal "carol" all of its own:


Christmas time is here by golly: disapproval would be folly. Deck the halls with hunks of holly, fill the cup and don't say when. Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens, mix the punch, drag out the Dickens. Even though the prospect sickens—brother, here we go again.

Read more (online.wsj.com)

Remembering Christopher Hitchens

By Lawrence Krauss

The world, which Christopher Hitchens would have happily admitted was already pretty dark, got a little darker yesterday. With his death, it also got a lot emptier. 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 we would like it to be. That is the highest praise I believe one can give to any intellect. He understood that the Universe doesn’t care about our existence, or our welfare, and epitomized the realization that our lives have meaning only to the extent we give them meaning.
Read more (richarddawkins.net)

For our Finnish visitors
Matti Apusen kolumni Yhden miehen totuuskomissio (hs.fi) sekä
Kultakuume, Yle Radio 1, 'Hitchens ja kriittisyyden abc' http://areena.yle.fi/audio/1324564681224

Lawrence Krauss on CNN

Tardy thanks for Christopher Hitchens

By Windsor Mann, editor of “The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism”

It’s hard to say anything about Christopher Hitchens that hasn’t been said already, but it’s even harder to say nothing. Hitchens died last week, a year-and-a-half after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He and I were not lifelong friends or family members, but I got to know him fairly well. We met nearly seven years ago, and it’s safe to say that, during this time, Hitchens mattered more to me than I did to him.

Read more (washingtontimes.com)

A lesson from Hitch: When rudeness is called for

By Dan Dennett

I’ve just been reviewing my experiences with Christopher Hitchens. He informed me, entertained me, provoked me like nobody else, and I will miss his antic spirit more than I can say. I didn’t know him for long, though I’d been reading his pieces, with mixed reactions, for years. We met in early 2007, and had dinner in Las Vegas, where we were both appearing in an Amazing Randi meeting. He kindled a happy bonfire of discussion that continued intermittently in meetings and emails.

Read more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/a-lesson-from-hitch-when-rudeness-is-called-for/2011/12/18/gIQAV6xz2O_blog.html

Hitch

By Sam Harris

The moment it was announced that Christopher Hitchens was sick with cancer, eulogies began spilling into print and from the podium. No one wanted to deny the possibility that he would recover, of course, but neither could we let the admiration we felt for him go unexpressed. It is a cliché to say that he was one of a kind and none can fill his shoes—but Hitch was and none can. In his case not even the most effusive tributes ring hollow. There was simply no one like him.

More: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/hitch/

UK Channel 4 Tribute

Hitch (1949-2011): Paxman & Schama

'The consummate writer, the brilliant friend'

By Ian McEwan

The place where Christopher Hitchens spent his last few weeks was hardly bookish, but he made it his own. Close to downtown Houston, Texas is the medical centre, a cluster of high-rises like La Défense of Paris, or the City of London, a financial district of a sort, where the common currency is illness. This complex is one of the world's great concentrations of medical expertise and technology.

Read more (guardian.co.uk)

A Man of Style and Wit

By Stephen Fry

Almost as many words have been written about Christopher Hitchens since he died as he would write in a typical working week. He was one of very, very few people on earth whom I would have missed just as much had I never had the pleasure and fortune of knowing him. He lit fires in people’s minds. He was an educator.

Read more (The Daily Beast)

Illness made Christopher Hitchens a symbol of the honesty and dignity of atheism.

By Richard Dawkins

On 7 October, I recorded a long conversation with Christopher Hitchens in Houston, Texas, for the Christmas edition of New Statesman which I was guest-editing. He looked frail, and his voice was no longer the familiar Richard Burton boom; but, though his body had clearly been diminished by the brutality of cancer, his mind and spirit had not.


Read more: http://bit.ly/t0ONCz (belfasttelegraph.co.uk) 


richarddawkins.net:
We will be publishing a selection of Christopher Hitchens obituaries, and posting them all in this one thread. So please keep checking back, as it will be updated from time to time over the next few days.
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644246-christopher-hitchens-obituaries

Hitchens' memoir to be published early next year

Entitled Mortality and based on his columns for Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens' final memoir will be published by Atlantic in the new year.

The forthcoming memoir will be based on the essays, said Atlantic Books, and will be called Mortality. The book had been planned for some time, said a spokesperson.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/16/christopher-hitchens-memoir-published-in-january

In Memoriam, my courageous brother Christopher, 1949-2011

By Peter Hitchens

How odd it is to hear of your own brother’s death on an early morning radio bulletin. How odd it is for a private loss to be a public event. I wouldn’t normally dream of writing about such a thing here, and I doubt if many people would expect me to. It is made even odder by the fact that I am a minor celebrity myself. And that the, ah, complex relationship between me and my brother has been public property.
Read more: http://bit.ly/rz4lJG

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011

Vanity Fair


Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. 

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011

Preview: Richard Dawkins interviews Christopher Hitchens

"Never be afraid of stridency"
Richard Dawkins: One of my main beefs with religion is the way they label children as a "Catholic child" or a "Muslim child". I've become a bit of a bore about it.
Christopher Hitchens: You must never be afraid of that charge, any more than stridency.

Read more (New Statesman)

New Statesman Christmas Issue

"Richard Dawkins has contributed an essay, written the New Statesman leader column, and travelled to Texas to conduct an exclusive interview with the author and journalist Christopher Hitchens. They discuss religious fundamentalism, US politics, Tony Blair, abortion and Christmas."

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/christmas-issue-dawkins

Trial of the Will

Vanity Fair | January 2012
By Christopher Hitchens

When it came to it, and old Kingsley suffered from a demoralizing and disorienting fall, he did take to his bed and eventually turned his face to the wall. It wasn’t all reclining and waiting for hospital room service after that—“Kill me, you fucking fool!” he once alarmingly exclaimed to his son Philip—but essentially he waited passively for the end. It duly came, without much fuss and with no charge.
Read more.

Hitchens orbits Mars, Jupiter, and Earth.

Asteroid Named for Christopher Hitchens
By Juli Weiner | Vanity Fair

An asteroid discovered by Ted Bowell, the former director of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search, has been named after Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/Asteroid-Named-for-Christopher-Hitchens