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When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
One of NPR's Best Books of the Year • An Instant New York Times Bestseller
From the pages of Vanity Fair to the red carpets of Hollywood, editor Graydon Carter’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture
When Graydon Carter was offered the editorship of Vanity Fair in 1992, he knew he faced an uphill battle—how to make the esteemed and long-established magazine his own. Not only was he confronted with a staff that he perceived to be loyal to the previous regime, but he arrived only a few years after launching Spy magazine, which gloried in skewering the celebrated and powerful—the very people Vanity Fair venerated. With curiosity, fearlessness, and a love of recent history and glamour that would come to define his storied career in magazines, Carter succeeded in endearing himself to his editors, contributors, and readers, as well as those who would grace the pages of Vanity Fair. He went on to run the magazine with overwhelming success for the next two and a half decades.
Filled with colorful memories and intimate details, When the Going Was Good is Graydon Carter’s lively recounting of how he made his mark as one of the most talented editors in the business. Moving to New York from Canada, he worked at Time, Life, The New York Observer, and Spy, before catching the eye of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who pulled him in to run Vanity Fair. In Newhouse he found an unwavering champion, a loyal proprietor who gave Carter the editorial and financial freedom to thrive. Annie Leibovitz’s photographs would come to define the look of the magazine, as would the “New Establishment” and annual Hollywood issues. Carter further planted a flag in Los Angeles with the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar party.
With his inimitable voice and signature quip, he brings readers to lunches and dinners with the great and good of America, Britain, and Europe. He assembled one of the most formidable stables of writers and photographers under one roof, and here he re-creates in real time the steps he took to ensure Vanity Fair cemented its place as the epicenter of art, culture, business, and politics, even as digital media took hold. Charming, candid, and brimming with stories, When the Going Was Good perfectly captures the last golden age of print magazines from the inside out.
From the pages of Vanity Fair to the red carpets of Hollywood, editor Graydon Carter’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture
When Graydon Carter was offered the editorship of Vanity Fair in 1992, he knew he faced an uphill battle—how to make the esteemed and long-established magazine his own. Not only was he confronted with a staff that he perceived to be loyal to the previous regime, but he arrived only a few years after launching Spy magazine, which gloried in skewering the celebrated and powerful—the very people Vanity Fair venerated. With curiosity, fearlessness, and a love of recent history and glamour that would come to define his storied career in magazines, Carter succeeded in endearing himself to his editors, contributors, and readers, as well as those who would grace the pages of Vanity Fair. He went on to run the magazine with overwhelming success for the next two and a half decades.
Filled with colorful memories and intimate details, When the Going Was Good is Graydon Carter’s lively recounting of how he made his mark as one of the most talented editors in the business. Moving to New York from Canada, he worked at Time, Life, The New York Observer, and Spy, before catching the eye of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who pulled him in to run Vanity Fair. In Newhouse he found an unwavering champion, a loyal proprietor who gave Carter the editorial and financial freedom to thrive. Annie Leibovitz’s photographs would come to define the look of the magazine, as would the “New Establishment” and annual Hollywood issues. Carter further planted a flag in Los Angeles with the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar party.
With his inimitable voice and signature quip, he brings readers to lunches and dinners with the great and good of America, Britain, and Europe. He assembled one of the most formidable stables of writers and photographers under one roof, and here he re-creates in real time the steps he took to ensure Vanity Fair cemented its place as the epicenter of art, culture, business, and politics, even as digital media took hold. Charming, candid, and brimming with stories, When the Going Was Good perfectly captures the last golden age of print magazines from the inside out.
432 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2025
934 people are currently reading
8071 people want to read
About the author
Graydon Carter
144 books67 followersGraydon Carter is a Canadian journalist, editor, and publisher best known for his tenure as editor of Vanity Fair from 1992 to 2017. Before joining the magazine, he co-founded the satirical publication Spy in 1986 alongside Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips. Under his leadership, Vanity Fair became known for its mix of celebrity profiles and investigative journalism, winning 14 National Magazine Awards and earning Carter a place in the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame.
Carter's editorial influence extended beyond print, as he played a key role in producing several documentaries, including Public Speaking (2010), His Way (2011), and Gonzo, a film about Hunter S. Thompson. He was also an executive producer of 9/11, a CBS documentary about the September 11 attacks, which won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. In 2019, he co-launched the newsletter Air Mail with Alessandra Stanley, targeting a global readership.
Beyond journalism, Carter has been involved in the restaurant business, co-owning The Waverly Inn in New York and previously partnering in the historic Monkey Bar. His contributions to media and culture were recognized in 2017 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
Carter's editorial influence extended beyond print, as he played a key role in producing several documentaries, including Public Speaking (2010), His Way (2011), and Gonzo, a film about Hunter S. Thompson. He was also an executive producer of 9/11, a CBS documentary about the September 11 attacks, which won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. In 2019, he co-launched the newsletter Air Mail with Alessandra Stanley, targeting a global readership.
Beyond journalism, Carter has been involved in the restaurant business, co-owning The Waverly Inn in New York and previously partnering in the historic Monkey Bar. His contributions to media and culture were recognized in 2017 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 418 reviews
March 22, 2025
No teenybopper ever swooned over the pages of Tiger Beat as ardently as I once pored over every new issue of Spy magazine. Teaching undergraduates at a little Christian college in the cornfields of Southern Illinois, I didn’t know many of the magazine’s gilded targets far away in Manhattan, but the blend of style and satire that editors Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen published was everything I yearned to be a part of.
This week I’ve been reading Carter’s chatty new memoir, “When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines.” It’s like a bound edition of my old vision board.
“Looking back, I honestly don’t know what I was thinking,” Carter confesses with humility that’s equally winning and insincere. “Who was I to start a magazine that poked holes in the bloated egos of the city’s grandees?”
Huddled in his office at Life magazine, he and Andersen jotted down 100 potential story ideas for a new publication of “wit, satire, and what Kurt called literate sensationalism.” Inspired by Looney Tunes, London’s Private Eye, The Washington Post’s Style section and Mad magazine, they wanted “a bemused detachment but witheringly judgmental.”
Despite a flock of blue-blooded investors, Carter and Andersen never had enough money. They borrowed furniture for their tiny offices. The staff writers earned just a little more than $5,000 a year. (Although Christopher Hitchens liked the idea of Spy, he wasn’t willing to write for the fee they could pay.)
Nevertheless, when the first issue appeared in 1986, “its sheer shock value made Spy an....
This review is excerpted from The Washington Post's free weekly email newsletter, The Book Club, which you can read here:
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw...
This week I’ve been reading Carter’s chatty new memoir, “When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines.” It’s like a bound edition of my old vision board.
“Looking back, I honestly don’t know what I was thinking,” Carter confesses with humility that’s equally winning and insincere. “Who was I to start a magazine that poked holes in the bloated egos of the city’s grandees?”
Huddled in his office at Life magazine, he and Andersen jotted down 100 potential story ideas for a new publication of “wit, satire, and what Kurt called literate sensationalism.” Inspired by Looney Tunes, London’s Private Eye, The Washington Post’s Style section and Mad magazine, they wanted “a bemused detachment but witheringly judgmental.”
Despite a flock of blue-blooded investors, Carter and Andersen never had enough money. They borrowed furniture for their tiny offices. The staff writers earned just a little more than $5,000 a year. (Although Christopher Hitchens liked the idea of Spy, he wasn’t willing to write for the fee they could pay.)
Nevertheless, when the first issue appeared in 1986, “its sheer shock value made Spy an....
This review is excerpted from The Washington Post's free weekly email newsletter, The Book Club, which you can read here:
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw...
April 21, 2025
Generally light, with a couple of deep dives now and then. I was especially curious about the Spy years. Carter has a light touch, but a neat quip every so often livens things up. Obviously made of sterner stuff than he lets on, or how else could he survive both Spy and VF and the people he met -- elbows up more often than not, to use a newly popular canadian phrase. I'm sure he could tell more searing stories if certain subjects weren't still alive. If you preferred VF without Tina Brown (I preferred it before her tenureship) and liked Spy, this is worth reading. Otherwise, I'm not sure what readers would find attractive in it.
May 6, 2025
4.5 stars. Fabulous on audio.
July 21, 2025
As someone who has read Vanity Fair for almost two decades. And misses the monoculture of old world media dearly. It is not a surprise that I found this book to be juicy, fascinating and impossible to put down. While I have never met Mr. Carter the tone felt like I was hearing stories from a new friend I had met at a party.
April 28, 2025
(audiobook)
We love a humble king, especially when he's also an aesthete, scholar and a really good gossip. Loved the inside scoops and bits of honest shade about so many big names, especially his still ongoing feud with Trump about Trump's small hands. He is candid and honest about the way the world has changed in the digital age and how he has had to adapt but also refused to change. I learned a lot about the way magazines work as well. Note: I felt inspired and seen by the way he operates and approaches his life and work and family, and after checking his zodiac chart (LOL) it appears we have both the same moon and rising...
Reminded me of: Tina Brown's Vanity Fair Diaries, Griffin Dunne's The Friday Afternoon Club, Emily Sundberg and her Feed Me Substack empire, Nancy Meyers' The Intern, my love for NY 80s literature
We love a humble king, especially when he's also an aesthete, scholar and a really good gossip. Loved the inside scoops and bits of honest shade about so many big names, especially his still ongoing feud with Trump about Trump's small hands. He is candid and honest about the way the world has changed in the digital age and how he has had to adapt but also refused to change. I learned a lot about the way magazines work as well. Note: I felt inspired and seen by the way he operates and approaches his life and work and family, and after checking his zodiac chart (LOL) it appears we have both the same moon and rising...
Reminded me of: Tina Brown's Vanity Fair Diaries, Griffin Dunne's The Friday Afternoon Club, Emily Sundberg and her Feed Me Substack empire, Nancy Meyers' The Intern, my love for NY 80s literature
June 14, 2025
I had such high hopes! Carter's early years in Canada are fun, but the magazine days are just one list of names after another: editors, photographers, writers, assistants, celebrities... dull, dull, dull! There are a few amusing stories and profiles of eccentric creatives, but it just never caught on fire for me.
May 10, 2025
I’ll give it a 3+. One reviewer called Carter a varsity socializer. I agree. Fun listen and interesting history of magazines & nyc but he’s such a snob. Not sure I finished it.
Lorne. Graydon. Keith. Three abiding kings of New York City’s cultural life are the subjects of new books. Lorne is Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” who is examined under the stereo microscope that is Susan Morrison’s biography, “Lorne.” Graydon is Graydon Carter, a co-founder of the stinging magazine Spy in the 1980s and the editor of Vanity Fair during its plumpest and happiest decades, whose memoir is our topic today. Keith is Keith McNally, the proprietor of that consummate French bistro Balthazar — which is so well run, so well lit and so well victualed that surely one idea of a good death is to deliquesce in one of its red leather banquettes — who has a memoir out soon.
Lorne is 80; Graydon, 75; Keith, 73. Each is still very much in the game. But to have these books in a clump on my coffee table has given me an Auld Lang Syne-ish feeling. An era is approaching its end.
Carter’s memoir, “When the Going Was Good,” runs on two overlapping tracks. It’s the story of an underdog — the hockey-playing, Canadian-born son of an air force pilot — who morphs into a crisply dressed and flamboyantly maned overdog. It is, figuratively, the story of a young man who walks into Gotham barefoot and leaves, whistling, owning the keys to one of its castles.
Lorne. Graydon. Keith. Three abiding kings of New York City’s cultural life are the subjects of new books. Lorne is Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” who is examined under the stereo microscope that is Susan Morrison’s biography, “Lorne.” Graydon is Graydon Carter, a co-founder of the stinging magazine Spy in the 1980s and the editor of Vanity Fair during its plumpest and happiest decades, whose memoir is our topic today. Keith is Keith McNally, the proprietor of that consummate French bistro Balthazar — which is so well run, so well lit and so well victualed that surely one idea of a good death is to deliquesce in one of its red leather banquettes — who has a memoir out soon.
Lorne is 80; Graydon, 75; Keith, 73. Each is still very much in the game. But to have these books in a clump on my coffee table has given me an Auld Lang Syne-ish feeling. An era is approaching its end.
Carter’s memoir, “When the Going Was Good,” runs on two overlapping tracks. It’s the story of an underdog — the hockey-playing, Canadian-born son of an air force pilot — who morphs into a crisply dressed and flamboyantly maned overdog. It is, figuratively, the story of a young man who walks into Gotham barefoot and leaves, whistling, owning the keys to one of its castles.
June 15, 2025
This is 417 pages of name dropping of people I’ve never heard of…not for me!
April 24, 2025
There’s a lot of truth that Canadians are just better people than thee and me. They tend to be nicer and treat their own and others with respect. This isn’t a bash Americans review; I’m a proud American. I sometimes just we treated each other like Canadians.
Graydon Carter was editor of “Vanity Fair” for 25 years. Before that, he founded and ran “Spy” magazine and worked for Time Magazine. Born in Toronto and raised in Ontario, he fell into magazine editing after stints at publications in Canada and the United States.
Being the editor of first “Spy” and then “Vanity Fair” in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 21st century years was to live an exciting and luxurious life. Of course, Carter had a lot of work to do to maintain his editorship.
REVIEW UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Graydon Carter was editor of “Vanity Fair” for 25 years. Before that, he founded and ran “Spy” magazine and worked for Time Magazine. Born in Toronto and raised in Ontario, he fell into magazine editing after stints at publications in Canada and the United States.
Being the editor of first “Spy” and then “Vanity Fair” in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 21st century years was to live an exciting and luxurious life. Of course, Carter had a lot of work to do to maintain his editorship.
REVIEW UNDER CONSTRUCTION
August 7, 2025
A fascinating life lived that seems impossible to be recreated even one generation later. That said, several parts read like a Rolodex (literally paragraphs of names)
May 9, 2025
An interesting glimpse into the behind the scenes world of Vanity Fair. I worked in magazines in the 90s, so I was familiar with the decadence. But this really illuminated how magical that world was, and how it is truly a bygone era. It is hard to not be nostalgic for that time, especially as Graydon describes his world, because it was a time when the arts really mattered, and people were truly interested in interesting people rather than people with money. There are moments of candidness, which are fun, and I laughed out loud at the parts about Spy Magazine, I had forgotten how witty that magazine was. I enjoyed the dishy parts about people behaving badly, and I wish there were more of them! They were mostly reserved for dead people. It was interesting to read about Dominick Dunne behind the scenes, I had loved his work but he sounded like a real jerk. I was confused that Graydon was so vociferous in his condemnation of Harvey Weinstein yet totally defended Roman Polanski--what the hell? I also didn't like that he totally glossed over his divorce, one second he is having the best life, then next second divorced. But amicably. Weird. Anyway, it is a bit sad because it truly is the end of an era, and Graydon is in his mid-seventies, which is mind blowing. He does capture an interesting time. I listened to him read it, which I recommend.
April 19, 2025
Less a memoir than a series of anecdotes strung together, which isn’t a bad thing when you’re listening to Graydon Carter recite them. I actually found the whole thing a bit understated given the bonkers extravagance of his career. A very interesting contrast to Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair memoir, which, like its author, tends to embellish its gilded subject matter.
July 30, 2025
The amount of money flowing through Condé Nast at a certain point in time is jaw-dropping. Especially if you work in independent publishing in the global South. The fact that all of that money was just there. To be used. You didn't have to scrimp and scrounge and be paid peanuts? Astounding. The obsession with and veneration of a liberal war hawk like Christopher Hitchens? Less so.
July 28, 2025
What a refreshing and fun read!
Not for everyone. I love namedropping and hearing about the lives of the rich and famous, especially when the narrator is more parallel than a part of the celebrity class. He narrates this glamorous and intellectual world with wit and skill. Also he is a bit of an outsider and the way he sees the world is incredibly interesting, especially the chapters where he isn't working in a newsroom or just started out in new york. I think the back half of that book is missing that.
The end of the book isn't so fun. After 2000 he stops talking about being an EIC and instead talks about his friends and producing movies and making fun of donald trump. I would have liked to hear about the move to more digital content, a discussion of 9/11, and the impact of the 2016 election on the newsroom. There is this really revealing chapter about Anna (he always omits the Wintour which is fabulous...) and how she wants to reorganize Conde Nast in her image because of her friends in Silicon Valley which is still sort of happening today. Literally no one gives a fuck about Airmail.
Not for everyone. I love namedropping and hearing about the lives of the rich and famous, especially when the narrator is more parallel than a part of the celebrity class. He narrates this glamorous and intellectual world with wit and skill. Also he is a bit of an outsider and the way he sees the world is incredibly interesting, especially the chapters where he isn't working in a newsroom or just started out in new york. I think the back half of that book is missing that.
The end of the book isn't so fun. After 2000 he stops talking about being an EIC and instead talks about his friends and producing movies and making fun of donald trump. I would have liked to hear about the move to more digital content, a discussion of 9/11, and the impact of the 2016 election on the newsroom. There is this really revealing chapter about Anna (he always omits the Wintour which is fabulous...) and how she wants to reorganize Conde Nast in her image because of her friends in Silicon Valley which is still sort of happening today. Literally no one gives a fuck about Airmail.
April 15, 2025
Great read with a lot of interesting stories. Graydon sounds like the kind of old guy you get into conversation with randomly at a coffee shop begrudgingly at first but by the end you’re like this guy is pretty cool!
July 19, 2025
I fell in love with Vanity Fair magazine during the Carter years, so really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes stories in this book and learning about how some memorable pieces came to be/some of my favourite writers came to join the title. Definitely one for fans.
April 17, 2025
When the going was good, is putting it mildly! Wha a time to be alive! I really enjoyed this book and miss the Vanity Fair of yore.
July 11, 2025
3.5 ⭐️ enjoyed revisiting the glory days of media and publishing in NYC but definitely a more niche story about Carter’s life and his friends and foes
September 6, 2025
I was sure I would adore reading this memoir since I think Spy Magazine was brilliant and every month I would read Vanity Fair cover to cover when Carter was the editor. I don't know if it's that the terrible state of the economy these days that is bumming me out or what, but I struggled with how tone deaf and clueless Carter is about his charmed life. I certainly am not one of those people who hate to read of others successes. Celeb memoirs are a weakness of mine. The more lavish and over the top lifestyle, the more entertained I am.
Yet here I sit, vaguely irritated at Carter's talk of expensing every meal and a bar at the end of the hallway at the office and work paying him to fly on the Concorde and stay at the most luxurious hotels in the world.....maybe because he is discussing office jobs and not discussing being a supermodel or rock star that the excesses bug me.
I stayed at the Connaught in London, the Ritz in Paris, the Hotel du Cap in the South of France, and the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Suites, room service, drivers in each city. For European trips, I flew the Concorde. I took round-trip flights on it at least three times a year for almost a decade.That's something like sixty flights. My passport picture was taken by Annie Leibovitz! The top editors were given a car and driver in the city.
I cannot stress how completely batshit crazy excessive the magazine world was. The money was flowing like water. He was the final generation to wallow in the luxury of that sort of workplace. I'm talking mouth hanging open I can't believe this was their office life stories. Vanity Fair had no budget. Meaning the sky was the limit. Yes, I know Silicon Valley and tech companies have also offered lavish benefits - onsite free restaurants and nap pods and massages. I visited Pixar about 20 years ago and was gobsmacked at the free restaurant, ping pong tables, the arcade etc. I told my friend how cool it all was and he said no one ever played any of the games, that would show your boss that you don't have enough work to do. And the free onsite restaurant was to keep you at the office working.
A lovely woman in an English maid's uniform came to make fresh coffee every few hours. My office had an adjoining private bathroom so luxurious that when a colleague from Spy came up to visit one day, she said it looked like Mitzi Gaynor's. At Vanity Fair, as I mentioned, I had not one but two assistants. Staff members could expense their breakfasts-not a working breakfast with a writer or photographer. Just regular breakfast.Large dinners at home were catered. Flowers went out to contributors at an astounding rate, sometimes just for turning a story in on time. Does your boss send you flowers every time you finish an assignment?
Everybody at Vanity Fair had an assistant. All the deputy and senior editors. The photo edi-tor. The art director. The fashion editor. At Condé Nast, there were interest-free loans to buy houses or apartments. Even the moving costs were covered by the company. SHUT UP. Did your company give you an interest free loan to buy your home?
At Conde Nast they were leaving the office every day to take multi hour meals with booze. Going to top end restaurants on the company dime. Carter tells a story of leaving a restaurant with Si Newhouse and it starting to rain so they jumped in a cab so as to not ruin their bespoke Saville Row suits. They then both realize that neither are carrying wallets. Doh! Because?....they are so rich and spoiled and well known they can go into a restaurant and not pay, the restaurant will bill them? Not sure how life works at that level. And the cabbie doesn't trust them to leave the cab and go into the building to get cash to pay. One of them has to wait in the cab. Hardy har har! Shades of 'don't you know who I am'. It isn't as funny a story as Carter thinks it is. I recently read Prince Harry's memoir and he discusses how infantilized his life was with the royal family. He never carried money or keys because why would he need either. This cab story reminded me of Harry's situation. Being that out of touch with the world is somewhat icky.
He does tell fun anecdotes as well. His running fight with Trump is pretty funny. At one point, since both are so transactional in their relationships with others, they "made up" and Carter actually attended Trump's wedding to Marla Maples. That surprised me, that he attended the short fingered vulgarian's wedding. Soon enough though, their mutual animosity and pettiness came to the forefront again and they took up sniping at each other.
The reason why Trump is President.
In 1983, Art Cooper, the editor of GQ, had asked me if I was interested in writing a story on Trump for the magazine. I wasn't, but I needed the money, so l agreed to do it. Trump was at the beginning of his florid tabloid residency, and since this was going to be his first major bit of national exposure, he let me hang around with him for three weeks. He hated the story when it came out. The piece portrayed him as an outer-borough sharpie with taste that veered toward the showy and the vulgar. And worse, I made the observation that his hands were a bit too small for his body. He was on the cover, and as I later discovered, wanted to keep that issue of GQ away from as many of his fellow New Yorkers as possible, so he had his staff go out and buy up copies on the newsstands. Years later, Si Newhouse told me that it was the brisk sales of the Trump GQ cover that led him to urge Random House to publish Trump's ghostwritten The Art of the Deal, which led to to the reality TV show The Apprentice, which led to where we are now. As they say, a butterfly's wings. It's all Graydon Carter's fault!
Carter mentions Kurt Vonnegut being rage filled that Spy magazine dubbed his wife a champion namedropper and that made me laugh out loud since Carter himself is a champion namedropper. It was a bit boring at first - he's not even namedropping super famous people - but after a while it started to amuse me. At times, Carter reminded me of those people who win an Oscar in the middle of the ceremony - the non famous people - who proceed to recite a litany of names to thank while no one listens.
Carter is a sucker for an Ivy League degree. He surrounded himself with people who went to Harvard or, if they were British, Oxford. I was not surprised to learn in the book that at least one son went to Groton($61,000/yr) and others to Collegiate($65,000/yr). If you had parents who were minor royalty, a CEO or famous in the arts then never fear. Carter will hire you to work at Vanity Fair.
We had a Washington Post heir. An E.F. Hutton heir, who also happened to be an heir to the Safeway supermarket chain. The CEO of ConAgra, the giant food processor, became an investor. We
had a member of the Frelinghuysen family as an investor. Tom's father was CEO of Raytheon, the giant defense contractor. He came in too. Gary suggested that we should meet Carl Navarre, a
champion shot, the owner of Atlantic Monthly Press, and, not incidentally, a Coca-Cola bottling heir The initial Spy investors. HEIRS!
Upon reflection, this obsession with "society" explains why Spy Magazine was so funny and on pointe. Carter is deeply interested in these people so was able to poke fun at them in a perceptive and humorous way.
Each chapter in the book reads almost like a stand alone essay. Yes, they build upon one another chronologically but you could certainly dip in and out of the book and only read certain chapters and not be lost. My favorite chapters were the ones about Spy and the one about the annual Vanity Fair Oscar Bash.
Some quotes from the Spy chapter.
A photo essay on what nightclubs looked like in the morning was shot by Sylvia Plachy, the mother of the then thirteen-year-old future Oscar-winner Adrien Brody. Even minor asides are worthy of namedropping!
When Larry Tisch, of the New York Tisch real estate family, bought CBS and began firing hundreds, we gave Tisch the epithet "churlish dwarf billionaire."...Henry Kissinger was a "socialite war criminal" - God, Spy was funny.
One month we ran an article called "Gore Vidal's 8 Bonus Tips on How to Feud." Tip number eight was "When all else fails, sue." A few days after the issue hit the newsstands, I got a call from Gore.
He said that if we didn't print a retraction, he'd sue.- Hahaha
Andy Warhol's diary was published without an index and, in the best use of interns EVER, the magazine assigned a dozen interns the job of creating one. What a brilliant idea and talk about a fun job to be assigned!
A sample entry:
Taylor, Elizabeth, mysterious trips to the bathroom with Halston, 49 resemblance to "fat little Kewpie doll," 115 "Very fat, but very beautiful," 177 "John Warner wasn't fucking her," given cocaine by Halston,178
This is not a personal memoir, not in the slightest, and that is fine with me. Honestly, I don't care about his relationship with his mother or his high school friends. I found the first part of the book dull precisely because he was writing about his pre-fame/pre-wealth lifestyle. I am reading this memoir for his work stories and his society stories, both of which he delivers in spades. That's why I ended up rating the book so high, even with the constant low level irritation I felt about his obliviousness about his pampered world. I wanted the details about his posh, upscale lifestyle. Yes, I realize the mixed message. Tell me about your extravagant lifestyle so I can simmer with annoyance. I didn't say my reaction made sense.
His brief mentions of his kids and his three wives didn't ring fully true for me. I am dying to hear his second's wife's version of their breakup. I highly doubt it's because Carter gained weight and his hair went grey. And for all his insistence that he was a hands on dad, I doubt he was. There are not enough hours in the day for him to be both a hands on father and to have the career and social life he did.
Some of his stories contradicted each other. A few pages after saying he made a point to come home every day to eat dinner with the kids and then sit around and do his editing work while they did homework he starts talking about all the restaurants he was a regular at. One he mentions eating at least 3 times a week at. Huh. I wondered if he meant he came home and watched the kids eat and then went out to eat separately after the nanny I presume put the kids to bed. Then he tells his great tip as to how parents can create tight sibling bonds amongst their children. Go out to eat with your family and have your children sit at a separate table. You sit at one table with your spouse and another couple, and you tell the restaurant host to seat your young children at a separate table next to you. That way the kids will be forced to talk to each other and entertain each other. He mentions that his kids were 3, 6 and 8 when he started doing this. Uh-huh, sure, that will work. Next time you go out with your very young kids try telling the restaurant you want your 3,6,and 8 year old to have a separate table while you drink and carouse with adults at your own table. See what happens. If you, like Carter, are a wealthy celeb regular, then the restaurant will probably say ok and humor you. Otherwise, get ready to be looked at like you are nuts.
Yet here I sit, vaguely irritated at Carter's talk of expensing every meal and a bar at the end of the hallway at the office and work paying him to fly on the Concorde and stay at the most luxurious hotels in the world.....maybe because he is discussing office jobs and not discussing being a supermodel or rock star that the excesses bug me.
I stayed at the Connaught in London, the Ritz in Paris, the Hotel du Cap in the South of France, and the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Suites, room service, drivers in each city. For European trips, I flew the Concorde. I took round-trip flights on it at least three times a year for almost a decade.That's something like sixty flights. My passport picture was taken by Annie Leibovitz! The top editors were given a car and driver in the city.
I cannot stress how completely batshit crazy excessive the magazine world was. The money was flowing like water. He was the final generation to wallow in the luxury of that sort of workplace. I'm talking mouth hanging open I can't believe this was their office life stories. Vanity Fair had no budget. Meaning the sky was the limit. Yes, I know Silicon Valley and tech companies have also offered lavish benefits - onsite free restaurants and nap pods and massages. I visited Pixar about 20 years ago and was gobsmacked at the free restaurant, ping pong tables, the arcade etc. I told my friend how cool it all was and he said no one ever played any of the games, that would show your boss that you don't have enough work to do. And the free onsite restaurant was to keep you at the office working.
A lovely woman in an English maid's uniform came to make fresh coffee every few hours. My office had an adjoining private bathroom so luxurious that when a colleague from Spy came up to visit one day, she said it looked like Mitzi Gaynor's. At Vanity Fair, as I mentioned, I had not one but two assistants. Staff members could expense their breakfasts-not a working breakfast with a writer or photographer. Just regular breakfast.Large dinners at home were catered. Flowers went out to contributors at an astounding rate, sometimes just for turning a story in on time. Does your boss send you flowers every time you finish an assignment?
Everybody at Vanity Fair had an assistant. All the deputy and senior editors. The photo edi-tor. The art director. The fashion editor. At Condé Nast, there were interest-free loans to buy houses or apartments. Even the moving costs were covered by the company. SHUT UP. Did your company give you an interest free loan to buy your home?
At Conde Nast they were leaving the office every day to take multi hour meals with booze. Going to top end restaurants on the company dime. Carter tells a story of leaving a restaurant with Si Newhouse and it starting to rain so they jumped in a cab so as to not ruin their bespoke Saville Row suits. They then both realize that neither are carrying wallets. Doh! Because?....they are so rich and spoiled and well known they can go into a restaurant and not pay, the restaurant will bill them? Not sure how life works at that level. And the cabbie doesn't trust them to leave the cab and go into the building to get cash to pay. One of them has to wait in the cab. Hardy har har! Shades of 'don't you know who I am'. It isn't as funny a story as Carter thinks it is. I recently read Prince Harry's memoir and he discusses how infantilized his life was with the royal family. He never carried money or keys because why would he need either. This cab story reminded me of Harry's situation. Being that out of touch with the world is somewhat icky.
He does tell fun anecdotes as well. His running fight with Trump is pretty funny. At one point, since both are so transactional in their relationships with others, they "made up" and Carter actually attended Trump's wedding to Marla Maples. That surprised me, that he attended the short fingered vulgarian's wedding. Soon enough though, their mutual animosity and pettiness came to the forefront again and they took up sniping at each other.
The reason why Trump is President.
In 1983, Art Cooper, the editor of GQ, had asked me if I was interested in writing a story on Trump for the magazine. I wasn't, but I needed the money, so l agreed to do it. Trump was at the beginning of his florid tabloid residency, and since this was going to be his first major bit of national exposure, he let me hang around with him for three weeks. He hated the story when it came out. The piece portrayed him as an outer-borough sharpie with taste that veered toward the showy and the vulgar. And worse, I made the observation that his hands were a bit too small for his body. He was on the cover, and as I later discovered, wanted to keep that issue of GQ away from as many of his fellow New Yorkers as possible, so he had his staff go out and buy up copies on the newsstands. Years later, Si Newhouse told me that it was the brisk sales of the Trump GQ cover that led him to urge Random House to publish Trump's ghostwritten The Art of the Deal, which led to to the reality TV show The Apprentice, which led to where we are now. As they say, a butterfly's wings. It's all Graydon Carter's fault!
Carter mentions Kurt Vonnegut being rage filled that Spy magazine dubbed his wife a champion namedropper and that made me laugh out loud since Carter himself is a champion namedropper. It was a bit boring at first - he's not even namedropping super famous people - but after a while it started to amuse me. At times, Carter reminded me of those people who win an Oscar in the middle of the ceremony - the non famous people - who proceed to recite a litany of names to thank while no one listens.
Carter is a sucker for an Ivy League degree. He surrounded himself with people who went to Harvard or, if they were British, Oxford. I was not surprised to learn in the book that at least one son went to Groton($61,000/yr) and others to Collegiate($65,000/yr). If you had parents who were minor royalty, a CEO or famous in the arts then never fear. Carter will hire you to work at Vanity Fair.
We had a Washington Post heir. An E.F. Hutton heir, who also happened to be an heir to the Safeway supermarket chain. The CEO of ConAgra, the giant food processor, became an investor. We
had a member of the Frelinghuysen family as an investor. Tom's father was CEO of Raytheon, the giant defense contractor. He came in too. Gary suggested that we should meet Carl Navarre, a
champion shot, the owner of Atlantic Monthly Press, and, not incidentally, a Coca-Cola bottling heir The initial Spy investors. HEIRS!
Upon reflection, this obsession with "society" explains why Spy Magazine was so funny and on pointe. Carter is deeply interested in these people so was able to poke fun at them in a perceptive and humorous way.
Each chapter in the book reads almost like a stand alone essay. Yes, they build upon one another chronologically but you could certainly dip in and out of the book and only read certain chapters and not be lost. My favorite chapters were the ones about Spy and the one about the annual Vanity Fair Oscar Bash.
Some quotes from the Spy chapter.
A photo essay on what nightclubs looked like in the morning was shot by Sylvia Plachy, the mother of the then thirteen-year-old future Oscar-winner Adrien Brody. Even minor asides are worthy of namedropping!
When Larry Tisch, of the New York Tisch real estate family, bought CBS and began firing hundreds, we gave Tisch the epithet "churlish dwarf billionaire."...Henry Kissinger was a "socialite war criminal" - God, Spy was funny.
One month we ran an article called "Gore Vidal's 8 Bonus Tips on How to Feud." Tip number eight was "When all else fails, sue." A few days after the issue hit the newsstands, I got a call from Gore.
He said that if we didn't print a retraction, he'd sue.- Hahaha
Andy Warhol's diary was published without an index and, in the best use of interns EVER, the magazine assigned a dozen interns the job of creating one. What a brilliant idea and talk about a fun job to be assigned!
A sample entry:
Taylor, Elizabeth, mysterious trips to the bathroom with Halston, 49 resemblance to "fat little Kewpie doll," 115 "Very fat, but very beautiful," 177 "John Warner wasn't fucking her," given cocaine by Halston,178
This is not a personal memoir, not in the slightest, and that is fine with me. Honestly, I don't care about his relationship with his mother or his high school friends. I found the first part of the book dull precisely because he was writing about his pre-fame/pre-wealth lifestyle. I am reading this memoir for his work stories and his society stories, both of which he delivers in spades. That's why I ended up rating the book so high, even with the constant low level irritation I felt about his obliviousness about his pampered world. I wanted the details about his posh, upscale lifestyle. Yes, I realize the mixed message. Tell me about your extravagant lifestyle so I can simmer with annoyance. I didn't say my reaction made sense.
His brief mentions of his kids and his three wives didn't ring fully true for me. I am dying to hear his second's wife's version of their breakup. I highly doubt it's because Carter gained weight and his hair went grey. And for all his insistence that he was a hands on dad, I doubt he was. There are not enough hours in the day for him to be both a hands on father and to have the career and social life he did.
Some of his stories contradicted each other. A few pages after saying he made a point to come home every day to eat dinner with the kids and then sit around and do his editing work while they did homework he starts talking about all the restaurants he was a regular at. One he mentions eating at least 3 times a week at. Huh. I wondered if he meant he came home and watched the kids eat and then went out to eat separately after the nanny I presume put the kids to bed. Then he tells his great tip as to how parents can create tight sibling bonds amongst their children. Go out to eat with your family and have your children sit at a separate table. You sit at one table with your spouse and another couple, and you tell the restaurant host to seat your young children at a separate table next to you. That way the kids will be forced to talk to each other and entertain each other. He mentions that his kids were 3, 6 and 8 when he started doing this. Uh-huh, sure, that will work. Next time you go out with your very young kids try telling the restaurant you want your 3,6,and 8 year old to have a separate table while you drink and carouse with adults at your own table. See what happens. If you, like Carter, are a wealthy celeb regular, then the restaurant will probably say ok and humor you. Otherwise, get ready to be looked at like you are nuts.
April 30, 2025
To sum it up, I'd say, Graydon Carter's book "When the Going Was Good" could be summarized as "When the reading is fantastic." At one point, the author says he never likes to be the smartest person in the meeting so that he can learn from others. That's a generous goal, but, judging by this book, he can't help in many cases being the smartest person in the room. He's an old-fashioned magazine guy, an import from Canada who worked at Time Magazine, co-founded Spy Magaine, and spent 25 glorious years developing Vanity Fair into the must-read of every literate and upscale gossip-loving person in America. I know whereof I speak, because I'm an even older magazine and book guy who worked for the owner of Conde Nast, Si Newhouse, as his circulation director when the modern, renovaated Vanity Fair was launched in the early 1980s. We struggled finding the right audience until Tina Brown arrived from England. Tina put her stamp on the right combination of two sensibilities: The New Yorker and People magazines so that Vanity Fair started to take off. Graydon took over in the early '90's and the rest is glorious history. (Just for the record, I've only met Graydon once or twice for a handshake, so he's not a friend. I was gone from Conde Nast by the time Tina arrived.) In fact, considering the list of grandees and celebrities and brilliant lovers of the treasured printed word that Graydon cultivates in this book, I'm very proud of his success and happy that Si Newhouse recognized and cultivated the talent and used his considerable resources behind Tina and Graydon to make Vanity Fair such a success. One of the great virtues of the book is Graydon's description of the close 25-year relationship that he developed with Si that made it possible to sign on a list of talent which produced a great monthly magazine and poignant anecdotes aided by James Fox, the editor and Eric Hanson, the illustrator, and the whole spectacular Vanity Fair team. My only quibble is when Graydon tries to get even with some of his past critics including a certain President of the United States. The best thing about the book is that it's a tributee to the arts with minimal political digressions while Graydon's star has illuminated Peabody-winning tv documentaries, a hit play, and the famous kill-for-an-invite, post-Oscar party, plus a new venture called "Air Mail." He also has five children and a partial interest in a restaurant. This is a busy man and we're lucky that he has taken the time to share his life with us. Finally, I also highly recommend the hardcover version of the book which shows Penguin Press and Random House at their very best.
August 13, 2025
Adventures? Can these anecdotes be classified as adventures? They're more incidents. Perhaps episodes. I should have known to stop reading after the book opens with the boring tale of the Deep Throat revelation. That's the best you got? This is going to be a long slog, and it was for me.
Carter seems like a nice enough man, he makes his own phone calls after all, but he's out of touch and probably has no understanding of how the majority of people live. That's not his fault. It's just annoying.
How about this line - "he made the team at Harvard and then played pro in Europe before ending up, as so many kids do these days, at a bank." What? As a teller? What does that mean?
He also believes that taking his children out of school for two weeks to stay at the Ritz in Paris or the Connaught in London were great learning experiences - "I figured my kid would learn a lot more about life ... just by being in Paris or London- than they ever would in the classes they missed." What does a kid learn from staying at the most expensive hotels in the world other than to be a pompous ass? Put him up at the Motel 6 in Bakersfield for two weeks, I guarantee your Groton boy will learn much more about life and how most people live.
Like I said, Carter seems like a nice, albeit out-of-touch man, but he's no more interesting than your neighbor. He just has more money and has dinner at expensive restaurants with people with more money. Maybe he has better stories that he held back, but if that's the case, why waste our time?
Oh, and the one piece of advice he can't believe hasn't caught on? At your next dinner party, make your place cards two-sided. Remember that, everybody, the next time you throw a dinner party that includes place cards.
Carter seems like a nice enough man, he makes his own phone calls after all, but he's out of touch and probably has no understanding of how the majority of people live. That's not his fault. It's just annoying.
How about this line - "he made the team at Harvard and then played pro in Europe before ending up, as so many kids do these days, at a bank." What? As a teller? What does that mean?
He also believes that taking his children out of school for two weeks to stay at the Ritz in Paris or the Connaught in London were great learning experiences - "I figured my kid would learn a lot more about life ... just by being in Paris or London- than they ever would in the classes they missed." What does a kid learn from staying at the most expensive hotels in the world other than to be a pompous ass? Put him up at the Motel 6 in Bakersfield for two weeks, I guarantee your Groton boy will learn much more about life and how most people live.
Like I said, Carter seems like a nice, albeit out-of-touch man, but he's no more interesting than your neighbor. He just has more money and has dinner at expensive restaurants with people with more money. Maybe he has better stories that he held back, but if that's the case, why waste our time?
Oh, and the one piece of advice he can't believe hasn't caught on? At your next dinner party, make your place cards two-sided. Remember that, everybody, the next time you throw a dinner party that includes place cards.
October 31, 2025
golden age of magazines! golden age of magazines :(
waited until now to read it to maximize the emotional damage
the amount of talent and intelligence circulating through VF and spy(!) in those days is astonishing. and to watch such a highly specific art form evaporate before your eyes is a real bummer. the nathan heller and bryan burrough reviews are must-reads
lewis parts had me down bad. true legend. honored to have been a part of the GC universe
"If the golden rule for a writer is to try to avoid situations where you find yourself writing something you wouldn’t read, a similar calculus probably applies to assigning and editing stories. Magazines, unlike newspapers, aren’t engaged in comprehensive coverage. Pieces that are gratuitous or dutiful, undertaken in the 'we should probably' mode, usually stink like dead fish from a mile away. The defining experience of good magazine reading is 'I didn’t think I was interested, but': the medium is made not in its choice of subjects but in its qualities of execution. Magic happens when at least one person—a writer, a photographer, or an editor—has been allowed to fall in love."
waited until now to read it to maximize the emotional damage
the amount of talent and intelligence circulating through VF and spy(!) in those days is astonishing. and to watch such a highly specific art form evaporate before your eyes is a real bummer. the nathan heller and bryan burrough reviews are must-reads
lewis parts had me down bad. true legend. honored to have been a part of the GC universe
"If the golden rule for a writer is to try to avoid situations where you find yourself writing something you wouldn’t read, a similar calculus probably applies to assigning and editing stories. Magazines, unlike newspapers, aren’t engaged in comprehensive coverage. Pieces that are gratuitous or dutiful, undertaken in the 'we should probably' mode, usually stink like dead fish from a mile away. The defining experience of good magazine reading is 'I didn’t think I was interested, but': the medium is made not in its choice of subjects but in its qualities of execution. Magic happens when at least one person—a writer, a photographer, or an editor—has been allowed to fall in love."
August 25, 2025
I was hooked from the very beginning. I could relate to certain styles of his upbringing with his parents having bridge parties. The fact that he was raised in Canada opened my mind to some traditions unlike in the US. Graydon Carter has a wonderful way of telling his life story and you feel his highs, lows and quick wit along a wonderful stimulating and spectacular life. I can’t remember loving a book as much as this book in a long time.
April 3, 2025
Amongst the great editors of the last 50 years, from the heydays of magazine publishing, and at centre of that world, NYC. GC is a terrific raconteur, and probably knew everyone in the city those days. Credited with the immortal and most succinct character sketch of Donald Trump - "the short-fingered vulgarian".
October 13, 2025
I ate this memoir up! I grew up reading Graydon Carter’s era of Vanity Fair and after college worked in magazines in NYC for a few years. Graydon is a man of great taste and his stories are fascinating and oftentimes, amusing.
Read
April 28, 2025I was glad when it was over.
September 19, 2025
Everything is Graydon Carter!
Damn this was so good. I couldn’t stop talking about it. To men that wanted to buy me a drink at a bar while I told them no thank you I’m not drinking tonight but did you know about sky magazine. To my dad who only wanted to tell me about softball practice and I couldn’t stop talking about how easy it was to succeed in nyc in the 70s, how everyone knew one another in the art and publishing world, how I’d probably have been famous. To my girlfriends who wanted me to just be quiet. I never stopped!
It’s particularly fun because Carter kinda doesn’t care who he is telling on, or throwing under a bus. And not in a nasty way but in a gossiping kind of way that doesn’t hurt anyone. I’m sure Anna wintour knew what Carter thought of her. It’s fine! His writing style also goes in and out of different story telling. Sometimes it linear, sometimes it’s cohesive, sometimes I was like wait lol why is this pieced here; very much like listening to someone talk. Wonderful.
a real interesting and timely point is his making fun of tr*mp in spy magazine in the 80s about his smalls hands and how his grudge against Carter began and how he wanted to take him down and vanity fair well into the 2000s. Carter wrote about him a lot actually and stayed within his own experiences when he did. It’s this grudge holding we can see with Kimmel getting kicked off air as well.
Also interesting because Carter was an editor of a newspaper while Nixon was president too. Something else I couldn’t stop talking about while watching all the presidents men. Dude has seen it all!
Whenever I’m asked “who would you want to invite to dinner dead or alive” I kinda blank after Lorne Michaels but definitely Graydon carter, you’re absolutely invited.
Damn this was so good. I couldn’t stop talking about it. To men that wanted to buy me a drink at a bar while I told them no thank you I’m not drinking tonight but did you know about sky magazine. To my dad who only wanted to tell me about softball practice and I couldn’t stop talking about how easy it was to succeed in nyc in the 70s, how everyone knew one another in the art and publishing world, how I’d probably have been famous. To my girlfriends who wanted me to just be quiet. I never stopped!
It’s particularly fun because Carter kinda doesn’t care who he is telling on, or throwing under a bus. And not in a nasty way but in a gossiping kind of way that doesn’t hurt anyone. I’m sure Anna wintour knew what Carter thought of her. It’s fine! His writing style also goes in and out of different story telling. Sometimes it linear, sometimes it’s cohesive, sometimes I was like wait lol why is this pieced here; very much like listening to someone talk. Wonderful.
a real interesting and timely point is his making fun of tr*mp in spy magazine in the 80s about his smalls hands and how his grudge against Carter began and how he wanted to take him down and vanity fair well into the 2000s. Carter wrote about him a lot actually and stayed within his own experiences when he did. It’s this grudge holding we can see with Kimmel getting kicked off air as well.
Also interesting because Carter was an editor of a newspaper while Nixon was president too. Something else I couldn’t stop talking about while watching all the presidents men. Dude has seen it all!
Whenever I’m asked “who would you want to invite to dinner dead or alive” I kinda blank after Lorne Michaels but definitely Graydon carter, you’re absolutely invited.
August 14, 2025
3.5
More entertainingly and humanely written than (imo) the publication the author edited for so many years! Many bon mots and quite worldly with some fun anecdotes and connections throughout.
Interesting to read the absolute calling Graydon Carter had for magazines throughout his life, such that ending up at the head of one of the biggest ones around was all but inevitable. Maybe a bit inconsequential overall, I don’t understand the fuss over Spy and would appreciate a bit more accountability on how DJT and other figures benefited from the infamy of their early coverage, but well executed and shines a light on one small corner of NYC’s media world
More entertainingly and humanely written than (imo) the publication the author edited for so many years! Many bon mots and quite worldly with some fun anecdotes and connections throughout.
Interesting to read the absolute calling Graydon Carter had for magazines throughout his life, such that ending up at the head of one of the biggest ones around was all but inevitable. Maybe a bit inconsequential overall, I don’t understand the fuss over Spy and would appreciate a bit more accountability on how DJT and other figures benefited from the infamy of their early coverage, but well executed and shines a light on one small corner of NYC’s media world
September 19, 2025
Reading about Spy magazine was great fun. I have fond memories of the "twins separated at birth" feature. Graydon Carter spends much of his book dropping names, and I can't help wondering how all those mentioned feel about it. It's fascinating to read about really rich people claiming they're poor. In Carter's case, he asserts his financial woes result from paying private-school tuition. I'm sure that was a drain on his budget, but there are cheaper schools than Collegiate. His bottomless expense account at Conde Nast amazes me.
June 2, 2025
The book I just finished reading was in my opinion a very good memoir about the life of the editor of Vanity Fair. It takes the reader into the world of how the magazine became Vanity Fair and how the process of hiring editors and writers and how the magazine became the power house of a magazine it is today.
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