Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens died of hospital-acquired pneumonia on 15 December 2011 in the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, aged 62. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to medical research. "Mortality", a collection of seven of Hitchen's "Vanity Fair" essays about his illness, was published posthumously in September 2012.
Mortality (book)
The critical response to "Mortality" was largely positive with friends and admirers of Hitchens praising both his character in confronting his death and the way that this was transferred onto the page. In a glowing review of "Mortality" in "The New York Times", Christopher Buckley described Hitchens' seven essays as "diamond-hard and brilliant" and "word-perfect." He wrote that it was "sobering and grief-inducing to read this brave and harrowing account of his "year of living dyingly" in the grip of the alien that succeeded where none of his debate opponents had in bringing him down." Buckley was a friend of Hitchens. Colm Tóibín fondly wrote in "The Guardian "of his experiences with Hitchens, opining that "he was the best company in the world" and offered praise for "Mortality", writing that "in this book he does everything to make sure that his voice remains civilised, searching and ready to vanquish all his enemies, most notably in this case the dullness of death and its silence." In "The Observer "Alexander Linklater was also complimentary. Referring to John Gray's description of Hitchens as "one of the greatest living writers of English prose", Linklater responded that "the only word of that which is certainly untrue is that Hitchens is now no longer living." He also noted: "The real struggle in "Mortality" is not with mortality. Hitchens cleaves to the logical conclusion of his materialism. He hints, rather, at a fear of losing himself, of becoming an imbecile, someone who might, in terror and pain, say something foolish or (God forbid) religious near the end, to give his enemies satisfaction. The true struggle of his last writings is to remain himself, deep in the country of the ill, for as long as he can." Another positive review came from the magazine where Hitchens started his career, "The New Statesman". George Eaton wrote that Hitchens' final work had "a timeless, aphoristic quality".