Lewis H. Lapham at work in the offices of Harper’s Magazine. Photograph by Matthew Septimus
[Letters]
Remembering Lewis H. Lapham
This month’s Letters section is devoted to remembrances of Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024), the editor of Harper’s Magazine from 1976 to 1981 and from 1983 to 2006.
I first worked for Lewis just out of college, having graduated into the Great Recession with a degree in ancient Greek and what could fairly be called limited prospects. On weekends I sometimes took the train in from Long Island, where I was living in my parents’ basement, to fill in for Ann Gollin as Lewis wrote his essays, taking dictation and entering edits into manuscripts, watching, over the course of…
