Christopher Hitchens - Mortality (2012), The Portable Atheist (2007)

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Slate, and The Atlantic, authored numerous books, including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and George Orwell. He was also the author of the international bestsellers god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and Hitch-22: A Memoir. He died in December 2011.

Mortality (2012)

Based on his columns in Vanity Fair that chronicled his year-and-a-half battle with esophageal cancer, Mortality is Christopher Hitchens at his most honest and reflective . Thoughtfully meditating on the harrowing effects of illness and treatment on the body, and on the impermanence and acceptance of a life ending, Mortality is Hitchens' magnum opus, and in true Hitchens form, he has the last word.

Reviews:

“Hitchens’s powerful voice compels us to consider carefully the small measures by which we live every day and to cherish them.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Christopher Hitchens is the greatest living essayist in the English language."
—Christopher Buckley

"If Hitchens didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to invent him."
—Ian McEwan

"Few writers can match Hitchens' cerebral pyrotechnics. Fewer still can emulate his punch as an intellectual character assassin. It is hard not to admire the sheer virtuosity of his prose. . . . With Hitchens one simply goes along for the ride. The destination hardly matters."
—Financial Times

The Portable Atheist (2007)

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages—with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices—past and present—that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you’ll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens—“political and literary journalist extraordinaire” (Los Angeles Times)—can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

Review:

"Hitchens has returned to the Belief Wars backed by a full army…the Godless Warrior marshals in an Atheist A-Team…to buttress his own arguments…Hitchens is the guide as well as the commentartor linking it all together."–"San Diego Tribune"