It is a good two decades since the journalist Christopher Hitchens first burst upon the awareness of the American media and intellectual class. Almost from the moment of his arrival in this country from Great Britain, he has been a howling success—far more so, indeed, than another British leftist, Alexander Cockburn, who came more or less at the same time and with whom he was formerly much paired.

Hitchens’s rapid advance is traceable to several factors. Unlike most journalists, a notoriously indolent race, he is remarkably industrious and prolific. In sharp contrast to his American counterparts, he is also widely read in literature, history, and politics. His polemical skills are considerable, and he wields a razor-sharp pen with dexterity.