"Christopher Hitchens, the late essayist and sot, was a man who purposefully cultivated a lot of friends of a certain type—rich, self-important, generally dim-witted and hence easy for a well-spoken Oxbridge debater to impress—and he electrified Washington D.C. society mainly by not being a completely charmless bore. Now those friends are the primary caretakers of his legacy, and, if the newly announced "Hitchens Prize" is any indication, they are going to memorialize him in the least Hitch-like ways possible." - Andrew C (✔)

"The Hitchens Prize, along with $50,000, will go to journalists and writers who best embody the qualities that Hitchens' friends think Hitchens was known for: "a commitment to free expression and inquiry, a range and depth of intellect, and a willingness to pursue the truth without regard to personal or professional consequence." (As has already been pointed out, nothing says "damn the consequences" like the possibility of a $50,000 prize for contrarianism.)" - Andrew C (✔)

"How dedicated, exactly, was Christopher Hitchens to "reasoned dialogue"? In my recollection, he believed in invective and insult. He was a polemicist in print and an arguer in debates. And he not infrequently simply made arguments based not on reason or evidence but on his own gut feelings. Much of his better polemical writing (and all of the worst of it) was clearly motivated by personal, visceral disgust. " - Andrew C (✔)

"While the foundation could mean "civil" strictly in the sense of "referring to civil society," the "if passionate" suggests that this is actually a ridiculous attribution of "civility" to a writer whose career was defined by his gleeful refusal to make his arguments politely or refrain from personal attacks. This was a man whose idea of "civil, if passionate, discourse and debate" was calling the Dixie Chicks "fat fucking slags." At his worst, which was often, he was a jumped-up Don Rickles, with only an affectation of the wit. " - Andrew C (✔)

"But the "Hitchens Prize" and its misinterpretation of the "Hitch" persona are not worth getting worked up about. This may sound ungenerous, but I suspect Christopher Hitchens the writer will be remembered, if at all, for his Kissinger book, a few bon mots, and little else. The fact that his ephemeral political writing will be forgotten, as most ephemeral political writing is, is the best thing that could happen to his reputation. " - Andrew C (✔)