Sales jump for books written by Hitchens

[December 17, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Fans of Christopher Hitchens are doing more than mourning his death: They're buying his books.

"Arguably," an essay collection released in September, and "God is Not Great," his 2007 best-seller, were both in the top 100 on Amazon.com as of Friday afternoon. Three of his books, including the memoir "Hitch-22," were in the top 6 on Amazon's list of "Movers and Shakers," the fastest sellers.

Hitchens died Thursday at age 62 after an 18-month battle with cancer of the esophagus. He was known for his fiery and eloquent rhetoric, for his militant atheism and defiance of political category.

Publisher Twelve Books announced Friday that a memoir about his illness he had been working on, "Mortality," would come out next year.

[Associated Press]

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