Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949-2011) was a prominent British-American author, journalist, essayist, and literary critic renowned for his sharp wit, contrarian political views, and influential writings on politics, religion, and culture. Born in Portsmouth, England, to a naval officer father and a mother from a Jewish background, he studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became involved in leftist politics. He began his career in the UK working for publications like the New Statesman before moving to the United States in 1981, where he became a leading media voice as a columnist for The Nation, Vanity Fair, and Slate. Hitchens evolved from Trotskyism to neoconservatism, notably supporting the 2003 Iraq War, which alienated many former allies on the left. A fierce atheist, he was one of the 'Four Horsemen' of New Atheism and authored the bestselling 'God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything' in 2007. His epistemological razor—'What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence'—remains influential. Hitchens's personal life was marked by heavy drinking, multiple marriages, and a strained relationship with his brother Peter, also a writer. His later years were overshadowed by a diagnosis of esophageal cancer in 2010, which he chronicled candidly before his death in Houston, Texas, at age 62. Throughout his career, he was celebrated for his intellectual rigor and vilified for his provocative stances, including defenses of free speech and criticisms of figures like Henry Kissinger and Mother Teresa. His extensive bibliography, including memoirs like 'Hitch-22' (2010), cements his legacy as a towering, polarizing figure in 20th- and 21st-century intellectual discourse.