• by Ray Schultz , July 24, 2024

Lewis H. Lapham, who served two stints as editor of Harper’s magazine, has died in Rome at age 89. 

Lapham, the patrician son of a shipping and banking magnate and the grandson of a mayor of San Francisco, ran Harper’s from 1976 to 1981 and from 1983 to 2006. 

The two years between his tours as editor occurred after he was pushed to resign by the board following the magazine’s purchase by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the oil company Atlantic Richfield. However, he was offered carte blanche to redesign the magazine when he was asked to return, and started running shorter features, according to The Washington Post. 

In 2007, he founded Lapham’s Quarterly, a print counterpoint to the internet culture, the Post says.

As editor of Harper’s, Lapham published articles not only by liberals but by conservatives like Irving Kristol. Among the Tom Wolfe work he published was Wolfe's send-up of modern art, The Painted Word. 

Lapham is survived by his wife, the former Joan Reeves, three children and 10 grandchildren.