Christopher Hitchens

The BBC's obituary of author and essayist Christopher Hitchens who died Thursday notes that he once resolved to visit "a country less fortunate than [his] own" at least once a year. That took him to places such as Poland, Argentina and Greece in the 1970s and more recently Uganda, Romania, Nicaragua and Iraq. It's an interesting quest. Hitchens, of course, wrote prolifically about these places with provocative fervor, usually in the form of  essays or commentaries on politics, political leaders, etc. As book critic David L. Ulin writes in this L.A. Times appreciation : "That was the thing about Hitchens - agree with him or not, it was impossible not to be stirred by his willingness to stake out unpopular positions, to say things that others weren't willing to say. " His works also contain deftly written portraits of what he saw on his travels, little gems that have always made me a bit of a Hitchens fan. Here's an excerpt from a 2008 Vanity Fair story about Britain's exclusive Eton school in which he gives his homeland a stony stare: "One summer morning I took myself off to have a look round the old place.

Mortality Christopher Hitchens Twelve: 104 pp., $22.99 For all that literature is an art of self-exposure, writers tend to back away from impending death. The shelf of firsthand looks at what Janet Hobhouse called "this dying business" is a short one - Hobhouse's searing posthumous novel "The Furies"; Raymond Carver's final collection of poetry, "A New Path to the Waterfall"; John Updike's "Endpoint and Other Poems. " I'm not sure why this is, exactly, other than that dying is a lot of work.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday. Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P. ( Los Angeles Times ) Joe Simon, the creator of Captain America, has also died. ( Los Angeles Times ) The surviving Beach Boys will reunite and tour and record a new album. ( Wall Street Journal ) In Israel, "The Hangover," becomes "Before the Wedding, We Stop in Vegas. " ( Los Angeles Times ) Demi Moore says she doesn't have immediate plans to change her Twitter handle: @mrskutcher.

I'd been working as a lowly scrub at the Nation in New York when, in 1979, I was asked to track down Christopher Hitchens on a trip I happened to be taking to London. My assignment: To lure him to come work for us. I was a convincing emissary, because from the minute I met Christopher, all I could think of was how I had to get him to work in New York, since I couldn't live without him. He seemed to me then like a mature step-up from Beatle worship; he was a heady mix of John Lennon (the clever riposte)

I'd been working as a lowly scrub at the Nation in New York when, in 1979, I was asked to track down Christopher Hitchens on a trip I happened to be taking to London. My assignment: To lure him to come work for us. I was a convincing emissary, because from the minute I met Christopher, all I could think of was how I had to get him to work in New York, since I couldn't live without him. He seemed to me then like a mature step-up from Beatle worship; he was a heady mix of John Lennon (the clever riposte)

Hitch-22 A Memoir Christopher Hitchens Twelve: 448 pp., $26.99 With the possible exception of Tom Wolfe and Maureen Dowd's, Christopher Hitchens' marvelous byline is the most archly kinetic in current-day American letters. Every article, review and essay has the romantic whiff of a durable vintage. You might disagree with him. You might question his motives. But not for a second will you ever be bored. "The usual duty of the 'intellectual' is to argue for complexity and to insist that phenomena in the world of ideas should not be sloganized or reduced to easily repeated formulae," Hitchens explains in "Hitch-22," the Vanity Fair correspondent's cunning, illuminating memoir.

BOOKS Elif Batuman As part of the Central Library's Aloud literary series, the author of "The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them" will discuss her favorite writers and share stories with David L. Ulin, book editor of the Los Angeles Times. Richard J. Riordan Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Free. Reservations required. (213) 228-7025. www.lfla .org . Christopher Hitchens The rabble-rousing Vanity Fair columnist and commentator on contemporary thought, politics and culture will present the 2010 Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture.

Christopher Hitchens' writings on politics and his public face on a variety of TV programs and in other forums have earned him manifold tags, not always favorable ones (depending on whom is bestowing them) — he's been called a provocateur, a contrarian, a ranter, a polemicist, a traitor (by former friends on the Left who disagree with his view of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq). But the essays in "Arguably" remind us of other dimensions to this singular writer and thinker that are sometimes overshadowed by the range of his political commentary.

As fans of the late Christopher Hitchens cycle through the five stages of grief, it's interesting to see which of his opinions can still inspire the kind of anger that is unlikely to ever fade into acceptance. There are, of course, the obvious candidates: his characterization of Bill Clinton as "a rapist" or his vilification of Mother Teresa as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud. " There is also his oh so chivalrous shout-out to the Dixie Chicks, whom he called "fat slugs" (or "slags" or "sluts" depending on your source)

Mortality Christopher Hitchens Twelve: 104 pp., $22.99 For all that literature is an art of self-exposure, writers tend to back away from impending death. The shelf of firsthand looks at what Janet Hobhouse called "this dying business" is a short one - Hobhouse's searing posthumous novel "The Furies"; Raymond Carver's final collection of poetry, "A New Path to the Waterfall"; John Updike's "Endpoint and Other Poems. " I'm not sure why this is, exactly, other than that dying is a lot of work.

As fans of the late Christopher Hitchens cycle through the five stages of grief, it's interesting to see which of his opinions can still inspire the kind of anger that is unlikely to ever fade into acceptance. There are, of course, the obvious candidates: his characterization of Bill Clinton as "a rapist" or his vilification of Mother Teresa as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud. " There is also his oh so chivalrous shout-out to the Dixie Chicks, whom he called "fat slugs" (or "slags" or "sluts" depending on your source)

I met Christopher Hitchens only once. It was in 2007, at BookExpo America, the publishing industry trade show, where we both were on a panel about the ethics of book reviewing. Hitchens, who died Thursday of esophageal cancer at age 62, dismissed the very premise of the discussion — ethics, he suggested, was a matter of action more than intention. To illustrate the point, he told the story of someone who had reviewed one of his early efforts badly; when, sometime later, Hitchens was asked to review a book by the same writer, he jumped at the chance.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday. Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P. ( Los Angeles Times ) Joe Simon, the creator of Captain America, has also died. ( Los Angeles Times ) The surviving Beach Boys will reunite and tour and record a new album. ( Wall Street Journal ) In Israel, "The Hangover," becomes "Before the Wedding, We Stop in Vegas. " ( Los Angeles Times ) Demi Moore says she doesn't have immediate plans to change her Twitter handle: @mrskutcher.

The BBC's obituary of author and essayist Christopher Hitchens who died Thursday notes that he once resolved to visit "a country less fortunate than [his] own" at least once a year. That took him to places such as Poland, Argentina and Greece in the 1970s and more recently Uganda, Romania, Nicaragua and Iraq. It's an interesting quest. Hitchens, of course, wrote prolifically about these places with provocative fervor, usually in the form of  essays or commentaries on politics, political leaders, etc. As book critic David L. Ulin writes in this L.A. Times appreciation : "That was the thing about Hitchens - agree with him or not, it was impossible not to be stirred by his willingness to stake out unpopular positions, to say things that others weren't willing to say. " His works also contain deftly written portraits of what he saw on his travels, little gems that have always made me a bit of a Hitchens fan. Here's an excerpt from a 2008 Vanity Fair story about Britain's exclusive Eton school in which he gives his homeland a stony stare: "One summer morning I took myself off to have a look round the old place.

Writer Christopher Hitchens, 62, died Thursday of pneumonia, a complication of the esophageal cancer he battled for more than a year. Hitchens was best known for his essays about politics and faith.  An atheist, he famously debated religion with practicing Christians, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins. But in the last year of his life he also distinguished himself by writing about his cancer, penning a National Magazine Award-winning series of columns for the magazine Vanity Fair.

Christopher Hitchens, the engaging and enraging British-American author and essayist whose polemical writings on religion, politics, war and other provocations established him as one of his generation's most robust public intellectuals, has died. He was 62. Hitchens died Thursday night at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said his literary agent, Steve Wasserman. Hitchens was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in June 2010, when his memoir, "Hitch-22," hit the bestseller lists.

The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism — The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens Edited by Windsor Mann De Capo Press: 332 pps., $17 paper

I met Christopher Hitchens only once. It was in 2007, at BookExpo America, the publishing industry trade show, where we both were on a panel about the ethics of book reviewing. Hitchens, who died Thursday of esophageal cancer at age 62, dismissed the very premise of the discussion — ethics, he suggested, was a matter of action more than intention. To illustrate the point, he told the story of someone who had reviewed one of his early efforts badly; when, sometime later, Hitchens was asked to review a book by the same writer, he jumped at the chance.

Arguably Essays Christopher Hitchens Twelve: 789 pp., $30

Christopher Hitchens' writings on politics and his public face on a variety of TV programs and in other forums have earned him manifold tags, not always favorable ones (depending on whom is bestowing them) — he's been called a provocateur, a contrarian, a ranter, a polemicist, a traitor (by former friends on the Left who disagree with his view of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq). But the essays in "Arguably" remind us of other dimensions to this singular writer and thinker that are sometimes overshadowed by the range of his political commentary.