San Marcos Public Library

When The Going Was Good

by Graydon Carter with James Fox

Book list Carter regales readers with the story of how he became editor of Vanity Fair in 1992 and all that ensued up to his departure in 2017 in this rollicking memoir and heartfelt paean to the big, glossy, influential magazines of yore. After working odd jobs in his native Canada, including as a lineman, and struggling in school, Carter found his calling in college when he happened upon The Canadian Review. Humorously self-deprecating and charming, Carter traces his subsequent path to Time and Life, his gutsy launch of the venomously satirical Spy magazine, and his clever revitalization of the New York Observer, which inspired Si Newhouse of Condé Nast to recruit him for Vanity Fair. Carter's initial reception was chilly, but with deep coffers and his unerring gift for innovation and finding talent, he choreographed a spectacular makeover. Carter's zestful accounts of his editorial visions and their implementation are fascinating, as are his vivid profiles of writers, photographers, and Hollywood stars. Carter's delight in the chaos, effort, stress, and exhilaration of his editorships generate the effervescence and depth of this enthusiastically detailed chronicle.

Publishers Weekly This intimate memoir from former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Carter (Spy: The Funny Years) is at once a sharp look at the art of crafting a story, a collection of fizzy anecdotes about the magazine industry, and a stirring catalog of his efforts to remake Vanity Fair in his own image. The focus is almost exclusively on Carter’s work life, beginning with his employment as a groundman on the Canadian Railroad in the late 1960s before he moved to New York City in the ’70s. There, he helped develop the satirical Spy magazine, worked at Time magazine, and, in 1992, joined Vanity Fair, whose subjects and advertisers were often mocked in the pages of Spy. Balancing grit and glamor, Carter recounts the strain his busy schedule put on his marriage, weighing those difficulties against the perks of collaborating with the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Dominick Dunne. Especially memorable is a section on the Vanity Fair Oscar party, which Carter launched in 1994 to increase the publication’s standing among the entertainment industry’s elite. Carter’s wry tone and hard-won insights make this a must-read for aspiring journalists and those who lived through the good old days of print magazines. It’s a blast. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (Mar.)

Kirkus Revisiting glossy days. Carter navigates the path from his upbringing in rural Canada to foundingSpy magazine, a delightfully snarky publication perhaps most famous for labeling Donald Trump (to his indignation) as a “shortfingered vulgarian,’’ fast-tracking to a long, successful run at the helm ofVanity Fair before moving on to his current gig with the digital publicationAir Mail. But his subtitle gives the game away—Was theVanity Fair era, a skillful amalgam of celebrity journalism and investigative reporting, really a “golden age” of magazine journalism? In this admittedly enjoyable account, it seems more like a product, however well executed, of affluent times, generous pre-internet advertisers, and aspirational readers eager to feel part of a world beyond their income levels or societal status. Carter’s odyssey, surprisingly, is most engrossing when he recounts surviving freezing winters and a stint as a railroad lineman before making his way to New York, that “shimmering vessel of opportunity and reward,” where, Gatsby-like, he begins to climb the greasy pole by talking his way into a stint atTime magazine. Bored by the stultifying culture of the newsweekly, he and a colleague, Kurt Andersen, hole up to create prototypes ofSpy. “We wanted the voice,” he writes, “to be a mixture ofTime-ese from the 1940s, with its dense, fact-filled writing, and the saucy manner of London’sPrivate Eye”—andMad magazine. “We wanted to be outsiders on the ramparts picking off the big shots.’’ Mission accomplished. But asSpy’s financial fortunes foundered, Carter was wooed to take overVanity Fair and join the Establishment, gaining more recognition from the VF Oscar Party than journalism, whose halcyon age was better exemplified by Harold Ross’New Yorker or H.L. Mencken’sAmerican Mercury. Curiously, Carter begins this memoir by reciting the “Deep Throat” scoop revealing Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s Watergate source. It’s solid reporting, but closer to gossip than lasting literary value. The going was good—but it appears to be gone. An entertaining look back at a life in full. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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