When Louis Raffam passed away last year, it was thought that his magazine might go with him.
Lapham's Quarterly is his beloved journal of history and reports that he began, and has stopped causing problems. The fate of the publication was uncertain without Rapham, the former editor of Harper, who appears to be anthropomorphizing the bygone era of magazines.
However, Rafam's magazine, although under rather different owners, lives on. Bird College, a private free arts agency in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is obtained for free from the American Agora Foundation, a nonprofit organization that published the magazine.
“This will benefit all students,” said Leon Botstein, president of Bird College. “To understand how we can speak wisely that we don't seem to tolerate important ideas, important controversies and complexities without jargon and the worst self-referential academic prose.”
Founded in 2007, Lapham's Quarterly is odd, even in a quirky magazine business. Each issue links a wide range of sweeping themes, such as the current event “Night.” When Rafam passed away in July at the age of 89, he had already written the preamble to his latest issue focusing on energy.
Bard College plans to publish the issue in print, with titles “Islands” and “Folly.” It is still unclear if Bird will continue quarterly for Rafam's quarterly. The magazine is run by the Hannah Allend Centre, an institution of politics and humanities founded by scholar Roger Berkowitz.
A list of 17,500 payment subscribers for Lapham's Quarterly, one of the most valuable assets owned by the foundation, will also be handed over to the bard, said Paul Morris, the magazine's publisher and executive editor. It is unclear whether any of the staff members over 18 were hired when the magazine took a break last year. The American Agora Foundation will be disbanded.
Before he passed away, Mr. Rafam congratulated Mr. Morris on a call with him on his deal with Byrd. But it took Bird several months for the copyright issues to be reviewed, Morris said.
“It's my big lament that he couldn't be here because of this conversation,” Morris said.
