Posted on February 4, 2021 at 2:17 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

It isn’t unusual for the loved ones of a famous person, living or dead, to resist or express reservations about a biography of that person.

But, the New York Times reports, the extent to which Christopher Hitchens’s widow and his literary agent are making those feelings known has surprised some in the publishing industry — beginning with the author of the biography.

Stephen Phillips only recently realized this was why some of his emails to sources had gone unanswered.

Carol Blue-Hitchens and Steve Wasserman had emailed family, friends, and colleagues to alert them to Phillips’s Pamphleteer: The Life and Times of Christopher Hitchens and to ask them not to participate in interviews — a fact revealed in a podcast Phillips happened to hear.

Hitchens wrote in a variety of mediums, from books to essays to criticism; he was best known for God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (a National Book Award finalist) and the memoir Hitch-22 (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and bestseller).

The NY Times has plenty more commentary on the Hitchens biography situation from others in the field of high-profile-biographies.

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Categories: Today in Books

Comments
Had a deep and profound respect for everything Christopher Hitchens. Have read, watched and listened to everything of his I could find. Would never read a book on “Hitch” that his wife, Carol, did not authorize. RIP Mr. Hitchens!
Rex Stanley | 2/4/21 at 10:41 PM
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