Walter Isaacson '74 talks in the slow voice of a long-time journalist who knows that reporters take notes slowly and think in quotations. And although most reporters themselves hate to be interviewed, Isaacson, the managing editor of Time Magazine, seems to take it in stride.

When Time held its 100th anniversary bash earlier this year, Isaacson's machinations about who would sit near whom drummed up nearly as much publicity as the event itself.

Isaacson is Harvard, surrounding himself with former classmates and applying lessons learned in college to his work. He is also New York literati, known for hobnobbing with celebrities and appearing in the society pages.

But belying his larger-than-life persona, the editor is straightforward and practical, fully attuned to the information superhighway that will dominate his profession in the 21st century.

Isaacson began his high-profile journalistic career at an appropriately flashy venue: the Harvard Lampoon, that semisecret Sorrento Square social organization that used to (even in those days) occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

Harvard's opportunities were all a young Louisiana boy, the son of an engineer, could ask for.

"It really opened up the world to me since I had barely been north of the Mason-Dixon Line as a kid," he says.

The Lampoon--going through its "lazy" days--was where Isaacson says he "learned to love magazines and know a little about many different things. It peaked my interest in writing about history."

History and Literature was his concentration, but he also was a computer nut before it was popular.

"I studied computers a lot under [former Lowell House Master and Professor of Computer Science] Bill Bossert, but unfortunately I was about two or three years younger than Bill Gates, and we were still using Fortran and punch cards."

Though there was little hype surrounding this "new media" back then, Isaacson recognized its potential.

"I feel lucky enough that I learned and got a foundation of computers as well as in history at Harvard," he says.

Isaacson's Harvard summers were spent in London as an intern for The Times of London.

A Rhodes scholar, Isaacson soon joined the staff of the Times. He returned to the U.S. and wrote for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

In 1978, he joined Time Magazine and worked his way up from the lower echelons, where he wrote on national affairs, to the upper ranks of the editorial staff.