Lewis Lapham was born in San Francisco in 1935 and went to the Hotchkiss School, Yale University, and Cambridge University to further his education. He is the author of The Desire for Kings, Money and Class in America, Fortune's Child, Imperial Masquerade, Hotel America, and Waiting for the Barbarians, among other books of essays. He's worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and the New York Herald Tribune, as a syndicated newspaper columnist, and as editor of Harper's Magazine since 1983, where his monthly pieces won a National Magazine Award in 1995 for their refreshing point of view in an age of conformity. He was the host and executive editor of Bookmark, a weekly national public-television series, from 1989 until 1991. He was also the host and author of American Century, a six-part documentary series that aired on public television in 1989. With his wife and three children, he lives in New York City.