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 and Cambridge
In 1971, Lapham became editor of Harper's, after having worked for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune.
Books by Lewis H. Lapham
His writing has appeared in Life, Commentary, Vanity Fair, National Review, Yale Literary Magazine, ELLE, Fortune, Forbes, American Spectator, The New York Times, Maclean's, The Observer (London), and The Wall Street Journal.
Lapham is the host and author of the PBS series, America's Century, and he was host of the weekly PBS series, Bookmark.