Love him or hate him, it was impossible not to respect author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, who died Thursday at the age of 62.

As fans of his work mourned his death from pneumonia stemming from oesophageal cancer, RadarOnline.com reveals the man behind the famous byline who spoke out against Mother Theresa, Hilary and Bill Clinton, and even God.

Born in Portsmouth, England in 1949 to parents who were both in the Royal Navy, young Christopher was educated at a boarding school in Cambridge where he later confessed to having experimented with relationships with other male students, and even fell in love with a boy named Guy, who he exchanged poems and "white-hot snatched kisses" with.

Famed author and essayist Christopher Hitchens – whose journalistic career spanned more than four decades - has died at the age of 62, RadarOnline.com is reporting.

The controversial and outspoken British-American –  whose often radical writings and opinions both engaged and enraged readers- passed away at a hospital in Houston, Texas Thursday night from pneumonia, a complication of the advanced oesophageal cancer he was suffering from.

Hitchens was  diagnosed with the disease in June 2010, when his memoir, Hitch-22 hit the bestseller lists.

After his diagnosis, Hitchens often wrote about his declining health in his Vanity Fair column and was brutally honest about his life of excessive drinking and smoking.