''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. ('' Scientific American'' is older, but it did not become monthly until 1921). ''Harper's Magazine'' has won 22 National Magazine Awards. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the magazine published works of authors such as Herman Melville, Woodrow Wilson, and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. Willie Morris's resignation as editor in 1971 was considered a major event, and many other employees of the magazine resigned with him. The magazine has developed into the 21st century, adding several blogs. ''Harper's'' has been the subject of several controversies.

History

Fletcher, James, John, and Joseph Harper (ca

''Harper's Magazine'' began as ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'' in New York City in June 1850, by publisher Harper & Brothers. The company also founded the magazines '' Harper's Weekly'' and ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', and grew to become HarperCollins Publishing. The first press run of ''Harper's Magazine''—7,500 copies—sold out almost immediately. Circulation was some 50,000 issues six months later. The early issues reprinted material pirated from English authors such as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and the Brontë sisters. The magazine soon was publishing the work of American artists and writers, and in time commentary by the likes of Winston Churchill and Woodrow Wilson. Portions of Herman Melville's novel '' Moby-Dick'' were first published in the October 1851 issue of ''Harper's'' under the title, "The Town-Ho's Story" (titled after Chapter 54 of ''Moby-Dick''). In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company, becoming Harper & Row (now HarperCollins). In 1965, the magazine was separately incorporated, and became a division of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, owned by the Cowles Media Company. In the 1970s, ''Harper's Magazine'' published Seymour Hersh's reporting of the My Lai Massacre by United States forces in Vietnam. In 1971, editor Willie Morris resigned under pressure from owner

John Cowles, Jr. John Cowles Jr. (May 27, 1929 – March 17, 2012) was an American editor and publisher, son of John Cowles Sr. (1898–1983). Cowles sat on the boards of directors of the Associated Press and Columbia University's Pulitzer Prizes and had be ...

, prompting resignations from many of the magazine's star contributors and staffers, including

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

, David Halberstam, Robert Kotlowitz, Marshall Frady, and

Larry L. King Larry L. King (January 1, 1929 – December 20, 2012) was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'', which became a long-runni ...

: Robert Shnayerson, a senior editor at '' Time'' magazine, was hired to replace Morris as ''Harper's'' ninth editor, serving in that position from 1971 until 1976.

Lewis H. Lapham Lewis Henry Lapham (; born January 8, 1935) is an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly ''Harper's Magazine'' from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He is the founder of ''Lapham's Quarterly'', a quarterly publicat ...

served as managing editor from 1976 until 1981; he returned to the position again from 1983 until 2006. On June 17, 1980, the Star Tribune announced it would cease publishing ''Harper's Magazine'' after the August 1980 issue, but on July 9, 1980,

John R. MacArthur John Rick MacArthur (born June 4, 1956) is an American journalist and author of books about US politics. He is the president and publisher of '' Harper's Magazine''. Biography MacArthur is the son of J. Roderick MacArthur and French-born Chris ...

(who goes by the name Rick) and his father, Roderick, obtained pledges from the directorial boards of the

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

, the

Atlantic Richfield Company ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...

, and CEO Robert Orville Anderson to amass the $1.5 million needed to establish the Harper's Magazine Foundation. It now publishes the magazine. In 1984, Lapham and MacArthur—now publisher and president of the foundation—along with new executive editor Michael Pollan, redesigned ''Harper's'' and introduced the "Harper's Index" (statistics arranged for thoughtful effect), "Readings", and the "Annotation" departments to complement its fiction, essays, reportage, and reviews. As of the December 2019 issue, Julian Lucas writes the print edition's "New Books" column. Under the Lapham-MacArthur leadership, ''Harper's Magazine'' continued publishing literary fiction by

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

, George Saunders, and others. Politically, ''Harper's'' was an especially vocal critic of U.S. domestic and foreign policies. Editor Lapham's monthly "Notebook" columns have lambasted the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations. Since 2003, the magazine has concentrated on reportage about U.S. war in Iraq, with long articles about the battle for

Fallujah Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah, Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jew ...

, and the cronyism of the American reconstruction of Iraq. Other reporting has covered abortion issues, cloning, and global warming. In 2007, ''Harper's'' added the ''No Comment'' blog, by attorney Scott Horton, about legal controversies, Central Asian politics, and German studies. In April 2006, ''Harper's'' began publishing the ''Washington Babylon'' blog on its website, written by Washington Editor Ken Silverstein about American politics; and in 2008, ''Harper's'' added the ''Sentences'' blog, by contributing editor

Wyatt Mason Wyatt Mason (born 1969) is an American journalist, essayist, critic and translator. Background and education Mason was raised in Manhattan. He attended The Fieldston School in New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and also studied literature a ...

, about literature and '' belles lettres''. Since that time these two blogs have ceased publication. Another website feature, composed by a rotating set of authors, is the "Weekly Review", a three-paragraph distillation of the week's political, scientific, and bizarre news; like the "Harper's Index" and "Findings" in the print edition of the magazine, the "Weekly Review" items are typically arranged for ironic contrast.

Controversies

Editor

was criticized for his reportage of the

2004 Republican National Convention The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...

, which had yet to occur, in his essay "Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, a Brief History", published in the September 2004 issue, which implied that he had attended the convention. He apologized in a note. Lapham left two years later, after 28 years as ''Harper's'' editor-in-chief, and launched '' Lapham's Quarterly''. The August 2004 issue contained a photo essay by noted photojournalist

Peter Turnley Peter N. Turnley (born June 22, 1955)
nytim ...

, who had been hired to do a series of photo essays for the magazine. The eight-page spread in August 2004 showed images of death, grieving, and funerals from both sides of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. On the U.S. side, Turnley visited the funeral of an Oklahoma National Guard member, Spc. Kyle Brinlee, 21, who was killed when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. During his funeral, Turnley photographed the open casket as it lay in the back of the high-school auditorium where the funeral was held to accommodate 1,200 mourners, and this photo was used in the photo essay. Subsequently, the family sued the magazine in federal court. The case ended in 2007 when the U.S. Supreme Court, although saying the unauthorized publication was in "poor taste", upheld the ruling of the Tenth Circuit that the magazine had not violated the privacy rights of the family, as the family had invited the press, thus had "opened up the funeral scene to the public eye". The March 2006 issue contained Celia Farber's article, "Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science", presenting

Peter Duesberg Peter H. Duesberg (born December 2, 1936) is a German-American molecular biologist and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his early research into the genetic aspects of cancer. ...

's theory that HIV does not cause AIDS. It was strongly criticized by AIDS activists, scientists and physicians, the '' Columbia Journalism Review'', and others as inaccurate and promoting a scientifically discredited theory. The Treatment Action Campaign, a South African organization working for greater popular access to HIV treatments, posted a response by eight researchers documenting more than 50 errors in the article. Lewis Lapham was succeeded as ''Harper's'' editor by Roger Hodge in 2006.Jaclyn Peiser
"Harper's Editor Insists He Was Fired Over Katie Roiphe Essay"
'' The New York Times'', April 18, 2018. Since that time, the magazine has had a number of shorter-termed editors in chief, several of whom were fired amid various controversies. On January 25, 2010, the firing of the magazine's editor, Roger Hodge, by publisher John R. MacArthur was met with criticism among the magazine's subscribers and staff. MacArthur initially claimed Hodge was stepping down for "personal reasons", but later disclosed that he fired Hodge. Ellen Rosenbush served from 2010 to 2015. She returned in January 2016, when MacArthur fired Christopher Cox, who had been named editor only three months prior in October 2015. James Marcus assumed the post of editor in 2016. In March 2018, an essay by Katie Roiphe on the #MeToo movement excited controversy both online and inside ''Harper's''. Marcus had complained about the piece, suggesting the critique of #MeToo was inappropriate in light of ''Harper's'' "longtime reputation as a gentleman's smoking club"; he attributed this disagreement as a primary cause of his firing in 2018. In April 2018, Ellen Rosenbush assumed the title of editorial director. In October 2019, the magazine announced that novelist and essayist Christopher Beha would be taking over as editor, with Rosenbush remaining as editor-at-large. In July 2020, ''Harper's'' published an open letter called " A Letter on Justice and Open Debate" criticizing "illiberalism" and promoting a tolerance of different viewpoints. The letter received a mixed response on Twitter, with some remarking that the prominent signatories had "bigger platforms and more resources than most other humans" and were unlikely to face repercussions for anything they said, and others taking umbrage at particular signatories such as J. K. Rowling, who faced recent criticism for her comments on transgender issues.

Notable contributors

Horatio Alger Horatio Alger Jr. (; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works. His wri ...

Frederic H. Balfour Frederic Henry Balfour (1846 – 27 May 1909) was a British expatriate editing, editor, essayist, author, and sinologist, living in Shanghai during the Victorian era. He is most notable for his translation of the ''Tao Te Ching''. Many of these ...

* Wendell Berry * John Dickson Carr * John R. Chapin * Noam Chomsky *

* Florence Earle Coates *

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

Diane Cook Diane Marie Cook is an American writer currently based in New York. Her debut novel, ''The New Wilderness'' (2020), was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Biography and career After studying and writing fiction at university, Cook attend ...

* Rebecca Curtis *

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

* Bernard DeVoto * Stephen A. Douglas * Theodore Dreiser *

Irwin Edman Irwin Edman (November 28, 1896 – September 4, 1954) was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy. Biography Irwin Edman was born in New York City to Jewish parents. He grew up in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, ...

* Barbara Ehrenreich * Ralph Ellison * Sol Eytinge Jr. *

Lucine Finch Lucine Finch (c. 1875 – April 26, 1947) was a dramatist, graphic artist, magazine storywriter and poet born in Alabama. She traveled across the United States performing a series of slave narratives and songs. She was one of the earliest people ...

* Jonathan Franzen *

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

* Barbara Garson * John Taylor Gatto *

Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...

* Barbara Grizzuti Harrison * Seymour Hersh * Christopher Hitchens * Edward Hoagland * Richard Hofstadter * Winslow Homer *

Jim Hougan James Richard Hougan (born James Richard Edwards on October 14, 1942)iarchive:isbn 9780787679071/page/153, "Hougan, Jim 1942–." In: iarchive:isbn 9780787679071, ''Contemporary Authors Online: A Bio-bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in ...

* Irving Howe * William Dean Howells * Henry James * Naomi Klein * Ben Lerner * Jack London * Fitz Hugh Ludlow *

* Herman Melville *

Stanley Milgram Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984) was an American social psychologist, best known for his controversial experiments on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.Blass, T. (2004). ''The Man Who Shocke ...

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

Hamilton Morris Hamilton Morris (born April 14, 1987) is an American journalist, documentarian, and scientific researcher. He is the creator and director of the television series ''Hamilton's Pharmacopeia'', in which he investigated the chemistry, history, and ...

* John Muir * Thomas Nast * Albert Jay Nock *

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

* Cynthia Ozick * Kevin Phillips *

Marjorie Pickthall Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall (14 September 1883, in Gunnersbury, London – 22 April 1922, in Vancouver), was a Canadian writer who was born in England but lived in Canada from the time she was seven.Barbara Godard,Pickthall, Marjorie Lowr ...

* Sylvia Plath * Michael Pollan * Frederic Remington * Marilynne Robinson * Richard Rodriguez * Theodore Roosevelt * Philip Roth * J. D. Salinger * George Saunders * Miranda July * David Samuels * Herman George Scheffauer * Isaac Bashevis Singer * Jane Smiley * Zadie Smith * Rebecca Solnit * Terry Southern *

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

* Henry L. Stimson *

Alfred Thomas Story Alfred Thomas Story (1842–1934) was an English journalist, poet and author of numerous books. He was born in North Cave, in the county of York, the fourth child in the large family of James Story. His family was an old Durham, England, Durham ...

* Susan Straight * Booth Tarkington * Sara Teasdale *

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

* Kurt Vonnegut *

William T. Vollmann William Tanner Vollmann (born July 28, 1959) is an American novelist, journalist, war correspondent, short story writer, and essayist. He won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction with the novel ''Europe Central''.

* Adelaide Cilley Waldron * David Foster Wallace * H. G. Wells * E. B. White * Woodrow Wilson * Owen Wister * Tom Wolfe * Howard Zinn *

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

Gallery

Edward Penfield" mode="packed" heights="160px"> File:Harper's January.png, January 1894 File:Brooklyn Museum - Harper's Poster - January 1895 - Edward Penfield.jpg, January 1895 File:Edward Penfield, Harper's June, 1896.jpg, June 1896 File:Brooklyn Museum - Harper's Poster - Christmas December 1896 - Edward Penfield.jpg, December 1896 File:Edward Penfield- Harper's Magazine May 1897.jpg, May 1897

References

External links