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March is Women's History Month!

Christopher Hitchens: 'Atheist Intellectual,' 'Noble Contrarian'

Christopher Hitchens.
Brendan Banaszak
/
NPR
Christopher Hitchens.

The life of often controversial writer and cultural critic Christopher Hitchens, who died Thursday after a long battle against cancer of the esophagus, as told in some of today's headlines:

-- "Christopher Hitchens, Author and Contrarian, Dies at 62." (The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog)

-- "Christopher Hitchens Dies At 62; Engaging, Enraging Author And Essayist." (Los Angeles Times)

-- "Atheist Intellectual Christopher Hitchens Dead At 62." (Reuters)

-- "Christopher Hitchens, 62; Writer's Ideas Enlivened Books, Magazines, Web." (Boston Globe)

-- "RIP Christopher Hitchens, The Cicero Of The Saloon Bar." (The Telegraph)

-- "Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit." (The New York Times)

Vanity Fair, where Hitchens was a contributing editor, has an extensive look at his life here.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.