When the Going Was Good

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 IN THE INDEPENDENT, GQ, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES AND BBC CULTURE

When the Going Was Good is Graydon Carter's lively recounting of how he made his mark as one of society's most talented editors and shapers of culture. Carter arrived in New York from Canada with little more than a suitcase, a failed literary magazine in his past and a keen sense of ambition. He landed a job at Time, went on to work at Life, co-founded Spy magazine and edited The New York Observer before catching the eye of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who tapped him to run Vanity Fair.

With his inimitable voice and raconteur's quip, Carter brings readers inside the drawing rooms of the great and not-always-good of America, Britain and Europe. He assembled one of the best-ever stables of writers and photographers under one roof, and here he re-creates in real time the steps he took to ensure that Vanity Fair during his 25-year run cemented its place as the epicentre of art, culture, business and politics. Charming, candid and brimming with humour, When the Going Was Good perfectly captures the last golden age of print magazines from the inside out.

This highly entertaining book has a good story on every page Daily Mail
The journalism stories and the character analysis, as Elizabeth Hardwick liked to call gossip, are first-rate. New York Times Book Review
Graydon Carter is a brilliant raconteur of his own life...it's a real yarn of a lost world -- Marina Hyde The Rest is Entertainment
A final dispatch from a bygone era of print magazines, a delicious last gasp of success and glamour Independent
[A] joyful memoir Guardian
Engagingly candid Literary Review
[A] breezy memoir. There's Hollywood gossip, score-settling and tales from the era of limitless editorial budgets Monocle
Brisk, bright and full of well-told anecdotes about celebrities, artists and other power players in Carter's orbit. New Yorker
Written in his signature gait and filled with glorious details Vanity Fair
Yes, of course there's tea - or dish, as the old folks say. This is Graydon, after all. Deep, deep dish Washington Post
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 Publishers Weekly
[A] rollicking memoir and heartfelt paean to the big, glossy, influential magazines of yore...Carter's delight in the chaos, effort, stress, and exhilaration of his editorships generate the effervescence and depth of this enthusiastically detailed chronicle Booklist
Carter chronicles the industry and its people with deep love and affection, and it's a story of discovering one's passion, persistence, and undeniably being in the right place at the right time . . . An engaging book for lovers of glossy magazines and the people who make them Library Journal
What a great read - but it had a downside. It served to remind me how unexciting, unremarkable, and uninteresting I am, especially compared to this Carter fellow, the charming, colourful raconteur that he is. As Leon once said to me in a scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm, "That mothafucka lived a life!" -- Larry David
A splendidly-written and warm-hearted handbook for how to live, for how to be a friend and a leader and a parent and a partner and a dining companion that gets invited back, and it's precisely the sort of book that makes one a better person after reading it -- Lisa Taddeo
A tour de force - informative, insightful, droll and delightful -- Gay Talese
There is so much to savour...You emerge from this enormously enjoyable memoir with the feeling of having just left an unforgettable party -- Peter Morgan
A page-turning, big-hearted, self-knowing, anecdote-rich and often screechingly funny record of a life lived to the full. A great memoir by one of the great editors - and characters - of our time -- Christopher Buckley

Graydon Carter is the founder of Air Mail. Before this, he was a staff writer for both Time and Life. He co-created Spy, edited The New York Observer, and for twenty-five years was the award-winning editor of Vanity Fair. He is also the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of more than a dozen documentaries and one hit Broadway play. He and his wife live in Greenwich Village, not far from the Waverly Inn, and have five children.

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