In his late seventies he wrote a will stating that his life was not to be artificially prolonged. The hospital machinery he regarded as sophisticated instruments of torture, up to the standard of the Spanish Inquisition. He would have agreed with film director Luis Buñuel that "respect for human life becomes absurd when it leads to unlimited suffering, not only for the one who's dying but for those he leaves behind." He also understood, as had Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1811, that "there is a fullness of time when men should go, and not occupy too long the ground to which others have a right to advance."

Lewis Lapham passed away earlier this month. He was the former editor of Harper’s magazine, and then the Lapham Quarterly. Rereading his Memento Mori piece that was published in the Lapham Quarterly newsletter today reminded me of why I enjoyed his writing so much. Mixing the personal anecdotes with a wealth of historical references sent me down many rabbit holes when I read his editorials in the past. A quiet influencer on my own writing, I think.

Read more about him and his past work over at Lapham Quarterly.