Christopher Hitchens, peerless essayist, fierce intellectual, and Vanity Faircontributing editor, would have turned 63 today. Hitchens was born on April 13, 1949, in Portsmouth, England. He died on December 15, 2011, in Houston, Texas. In the interim, he composed dozens of the 20th century’s most provocative and fearless non-fiction works; traveled to countless sites of war and turmoil; published unflinching critiques of Mother Teresa, Noam Chomsky, and Bill Clinton, to name three of hundreds; and befriended, inspired, mentored, and challenged entire generations of journalists, editors, authors, socialites, and statesmen.

To commemorate him on this day, we invite you to browse *Vanity Fair’*s extensive archive of Hitchens’s work.