Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis Henry Lapham II (; January 8, 1935 – July 23, 2024) was an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He was the founder of Lapham's Quarterly, a publication about history and literature, and wrote numerous books on politics and current affairs.

Early life and education A son of Lewis A. Lapham and Jane Foster, Lapham was born January 8, 1935, in San Francisco. and his father was president of the Grace Line and Bankers Trust. Lapham also worked with the PEN American Center, sitting on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

Lapham wrote a September 2004 column for Harper's in which he included a brief account of the Republican National Convention as if he had witnessed it. However, the magazine arrived in subscribers' mailboxes before the convention took place, "forcing Lapham to admit that the scene was a fiction". The columnist apologized, "but pointed out political conventions are drearily scripted anyway – he basically knew what was going to be said".

Lapham's Quarterly Lapham retired from Harper's in 2006. That year, he founded Lapham's Quarterly, a publication about history and literature. Each issue is devoted to one subject and featured pieces by ancient writers to contemporary celebrities.

Works

After spending a year studying history at the University of Cambridge, Lapham wrote for the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Herald Tribune, The Saturday Evening Post, and Life. He also contributed to Commentary, Fortune, Forbes, Vanity Fair, among other publications.

Lapham was the host and author of the PBS series America's Century and he was host of the weekly PBS series, Bookmark from 1989 to 1991.

Lapham was until his death the host of The World in Time: radio discussions with scholars and historians on Bloomberg Radio that open the doors of history behind the events in the news. Podcasts of the weekly talks are available at Bloomberg.com.

Lapham wrote The American Ruling Class (2005), a movie done in documentary style and featuring fictional characters and real people, i.e. Bill Bradley, Hodding Carter III, and Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, pondering the question "Is there a ruling class in America?", Lapham states at the movie's conclusion that "if you're not in, you're out". The movie aired on the Sundance Channel on July 30, 2007. In 2016, he received the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

In 2025, Harper's Magazine created the Lewis H. Lapham Award for Literary Excellence, a literary award named in his honor. The inaugural award was given to Marilynne Robinson.

Personal life In 1972, Lapham married Joan Brooke Reeves, the daughter of Edward J. Reeves, a stockbroker and grocery heir, and Elizabeth M. Brooke (formerly the wife of Thomas Wilton Phipps, a nephew of Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor). They had three children: Delphina (married Prince Don Bante Maria Boncompagni-Ludovisi) Andrew (married Caroline Mulroney, only daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney)