The first text comes at 9 am from Hanif. Anita Bennet rings at 11 then all my children. Christopher is dead.

From: Maccabe, Colin <maccabe@pitt.edu>

To: Chris Hitchens <chitch8003@aol.com>

Sent: Fri, Aug 20, 2010 1:11 am

Subject: Love

Dear Christopher,

I have been following your bravery with awe and admiration. I look

forward to seeing you on the evening of September 30th. Don’t make any

effort for me. If you are too ill or too tired to talk then I will talk with

your wife and daughter,

Despite my Irish blood, I am an Englishman and it is therefore always

difficult to express emotions.But to adapt a phrase of yours I’d rather

regret saying it than not saying it. I should also add that Flavia is of the

opinion that just as your body has defied all medical opinion for the last

thirty years, that you will trundle on regardless for many years to come.

But I do want to say before you go whether that is in three or thirty years

that you have been the best of friends, that my life has been richer and

more amusing at every level because of you and that, as I am sure you know,

I love you

Colin

P.S. If there is anything that you wish me to do, you have of course only to

ask. I trust that it can keep until Sept 30th but if it can’t then write at

once.

From: <chitch8003@aol.com>

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 23:15:33 -0400

To: University of Pittsburgh <maccabe@pitt.edu>

Subject: Re: Love

Dearest Colin,

As you so rightly say, there are some emotions in English friendship that lie too deep for expression. But this need not mean that they need always go unsaid. Let it suffice to say that if our positions were reversed I would write to you – I hope as eloquently – in precisely the same terms.

A husky clasp, then, until next month. And my love to all your tribe.

Fraternally as always.

Christopher