While Hitchens’s notions on many subjects appeared to have been made up off the top of his head (Trotskyism! Islamofascism! Invade Iraq!), his favorite writers were sound as a pound. The first four authors Hitchens profiled for The Atlantic were Anthony Powell, Winston Churchill, Kingsley Amis, and Rudyard Kipling: all of them English, right-of-center, and connected. Just before 9/11, Benjamin Schwarz hired Hitchens to write a long monthly literary column for The Atlantic that showcased Hitchens’s combination of panache, pedantry, and lifelong conservatism. ![]() Yet in at least one venue, Hitchens demonstrated distinction. Unable to boast of having downed a few with Hitchens myself, I tended to find much of his voluminous output over the last decade reminiscent of the legendary Private Eye reporter Phil Space. Still, I want to call admiring attention to his taste in English literature. ![]() There wouldn’t seem to be much left to say about the late Christopher Hitchens after the countless tributes paid by other journalists about the night (or afternoon or morning) they got drunk with Hitch. On the tenth anniversary of Christopher Hitchens’ death, here’s my obituary in Taki’s Magazine:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |