Lewis H. Lapham
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Lewis Henry Lapham (pronounced [ˈlu.ɪs ˈlæ.pəm]) (born January 8, 1935) was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine until 2006. He is now founding a quarterly publication on history. He has also written many books on politics and current affairs.
Lapham was born and grew up in San Francisco. His grandfather, Roger Lapham, was mayor of San Francisco, and his great grandfather was a founder of Texaco.
Lapham was educated at the Hotchkiss School, Yale University, and Cambridge.
Lewis Lapham served as editor of Harper's Magazine since 1976 (with a hiatus from 1981 to 1983). He was managing editor from 1971 to 1975, after having worked for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune. He is largely responsible for the modern look and prominence of the magazine, having introduced many of its signature features including its famed Harper's Index. He announced that he would become editor emeritus in Spring 2006, continuing to write his Notebook column for the magazine as well as editing a new journal about history, Lapham's Quarterly. Lapham has also worked with the PEN American Center, sitting on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award.
Lapham's son, Andrew Lapham, married Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, in September 2000. His other son, Winston Lapham, is in a relationship with Amanda Hearst, the publishing heiress.
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[edit] Lapham's journalistic scandal in 2004
Lapham wrote a September 2004 column for Harper's in which he included a brief account of the Republican National Convention as if the event had already happened and he had witnessed it, "reflecting on the content and sharing with readers a question that occurred to him as he listened," as Jennifer Senior wrote in a New York Times book review. But the magazine arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes before the convention had actually taken place, "forcing Lapham to admit that the scene was a fiction." The columnist apologized, "but pointed out that political conventions are drearily scripted anyway — he basically knew what was going to be said. By this logic, though, I could have chosen not to read Pretensions to Empire before reviewing it, since I already knew Lapham’s sensibility, just as he claims to know the Republicans’."[1]
[edit] Books
- Fortune's Child
- Money and Class in America
- Imperial Masquerade (1993) ISBN 0517110180
- The Wish for Kings
- Hotel America
- Waiting for the Barbarians
- Lapham's Rules of Influence (1999)
- Theater of War (2003)
- 30 Satires (a collection of essays) (2003) ISBN 1565848462
- Gag RuleISBN 1594200173
- Pretensions to Empire: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration, by Lewis H. Lapham (The New Press: 2006), 288 pages; ISBN 159558112X
His writing has appeared in Life, Commentary, Vanity Fair, National Review, Yale Literary Magazine, ELLE, Fortune, Forbes, American Spectator, New York Times, Maclean's, The Observer (London), and the Wall Street Journal. Lapham also served as a judge for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award.
Lapham is the host and author of the PBS series, America's Century, and he was host of the weekly PBS series, Bookmark.
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1]Senior, Jennifer, "Taking Aim", a book review of Pretensions to Empire by Lewis H. Lapham and "How Bush Rules" by Sidney Blumenthal, in The New York Times Book Review accessed September 23, 2006
[edit] External links
- Lewis Lapham discusses, Gag Rule, at the Carnegie Council
- Lewis Lapham to Become Editor Emeritus of Harper's Magazine at the Harpers site
