[pjmlp]

C was designed on a PDP-11, a computer much more powerful than the mainframes where Lisp was already running since 10 years, so Lisp implementations were already quite good for most tasks by then.

While C designers were trying to create UNIX at AT&T, Xerox PARC was busy creating Smalltalk, Interlisp-D and Mesa/Cedar.

Other companies were creating Genera and the Connection Machine,

In the end Worse is Better won, because the machines were too expensive for most pockets, normal developers could not grasp Lisp, mismanagement from those companies and UNIX was kind of cheap when comparing prices, with source code available almost for free (AT&T was prevented from selling it early on).