There have been many pieces about Christopher Hitchens since he died, but the one below is the most eloquent and touching one I have read. You can read it by clicking on the picture of the piece. This link is free if it is paywalled. Murray wrote The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity and I liked it.
It is a testimony to the expansiveness of the character that he and a pretty right-wing guy were friends. I will let you read this piece for yourself, it was written right after the death of Hitchens. I will give a few words.
This is an excellent start.
Most people would have been satisfied with just one of Christopher Hitchens' talents. He had talents that melded into each other: as speaker, writer and thinker. He was more than just the sum of these parts, for he had a talent that was even rarer, a talent for making us, his readers, want to be better people. He used his abilities to open up questions. He made the reader aware that they needed to do more, engage more, think more and know more. Writers want to impress their readers. Christopher made his readers want to know more about him.
Murray describes the capacity of Hitchens to travel and work at a pace that would drive others to a frazzle and to drink Mr. Walker's amber all the while. Even though he was tired and besotted, he could turn out the most wonderful and thoughtful prose. Murray wrote about how Hitchens went home and wrote a brilliant piece after a bibulous day.
A nice bit.
He was a master on the page. He excelled on stage. There is only one real rule in public speaking, it is never to speak to an audience before or after Christopher Hitchens.
Murray has a touching ending that is very true.
We spent a day together at Hay before Christopher was diagnosed. The opening chapters of Hitch-22 are among the most moving ever written, and I was reading the memoir that he was promoting. He dropped me off at my hotel. He would fly to the US in the morning. His schedule was always very demanding but for the first time it seemed to be taking a physical toll. We will have to concede that he lived his life exactly how he wanted if we want to keep wishing for another couple of decades of him. He worked himself up until the end for the things he believed in, the things he wanted to fight for and the things he loved. When I waved him off that night, I thought about when we would have to live without Christopher. The day has arrived. It will be very difficult for his wife, Carol, and his children, who were so proud of him. It is something that the rest of us will have to manage too.
>
One of our best writers and one of our best minds has left us. There are no false feelings to be had. We will have to consider what Christopher would have thought now that we know the truth. We will have to think for ourselves. It will be thanks to Christopher and the example he provided that we can manage it.
Go read the whole thing. He did live the life he wanted, and I don't think he did anything that he didn't like. Many of us wish he were here now, for the current state of America would give him plenty of fodder for his caustic wit. We will never know what he would think about things like cultural appropriation, trans activism, and the racial tension that is permeating society. He would have something to say, what he would say would be interesting and thought- provoking, and the prose would get us hooked.
When he received the Richard Dawkins Award less than two months before he died, Christopher Hitchens wanted to think for himself. If you haven't watched the whole thing, Hitchen's words are loud and clear, even though he was clearly ill.
