Christopher Hitchens died late last night, after battling esophageal cancer since last year. He was 62-years-old. Hitchens wrote for a wide variety of publications — including The Nation, Slate and The Atlantic — but he is probably most known for his many works that appeared in Vanity Fair, which he contributed to since 1992.

According to Vanity Fair, he died amongst friends:

‘My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,’ he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.

“There will never be another like Christopher,” said Graydon Carter. “A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.”