When the Going Was Good

An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines

By: Graydon Carter, James Fox - contributor

Narrated by: Graydon Carter

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 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 listeners 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.

©2025 Graydon Carter (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Yes, of course there’s tea—or dish, as the old folks say. This is Graydon, after all. Deep, deep dish . . . Waltzing, stumbling, dining, wining and twerking through When the Going Was Good, Graydon Carter’s memoir of his editorial glory days astride the New York Observer, Spy and Vanity Fair, are witty people doing anecdotal things.”—The Washington Post

“Carter, a former editor of Spy, the New York Observer, and Vanity Fair, has been held up over the years as a force of style, both in his personal taste and in his expansive vision of creative work, which grew from his editorial experiences during a prosperous and thrilling era in American magazines. This winsome memoir is a recounting of that period, brisk, bright, and full of well-told anecdotes about celebrities, artists, and other power players in Carter’s orbit.”—The New Yorker

“I quickly . . . consumed it. The journalism stories and the character analysis, as Elizabeth Hardwick liked to call gossip, are first-rate.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review

Vanity Fair days

Great stories. Food and friends. Not a diverse group though. A solid run of stories from the publishing world

Interesting particularly if you're in the business.

The backstories of many people I know were most interesting. The business was interesting. Some still is.

𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗗𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

𝗖𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿. 𝗛𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁" 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁

I loved all his parties

I liked everything and will read again, I miss him being the editor at vanity fair.

GC’s reading is great. It’s like a dinner with him, where he tells you his life’s story.

Great book. Some of the chapters are much more entertaining than others. Feels like some punches got pulled and some of the recounts of facts are tailored to meet today’s social requirements. I’d recommend it - truly a reflection of golden days that seem long gone - A double sided gravestone

Fascinating life

Great read, interesting stories, behind the scene of what journalism used to be like! Highly recommend!

hope you do a killer book Mr Carter

My last words to him as he left VF 2018. Not sure he did that but on the other hand, when asked for my number, I did not. I do wish this was in Hebrew, as the best advice at the back. His utter humanity even humility unexpected but as with Oscar, he likes creature comforts. Very much in his element producing content, glad he produced this too. Thanks Mr Carter.

Graydon’s voice

This book was for me an adventure into a life filled with funny stories, interesting antidotes, and marvelous history. I wish I could sit at the dinner table and listen to the chatter of Graydon and his friends.

Just wonderful. Exquisite and honest storytelling

Graydon’s stories from the front row of the greatest era in journalism are endlessly interesting, funny, enlightening and meaningful. What a life. What a time. What an industry. This book is simply great.

Delicious Dish From The Peak Era Of Glossy Maga

Observing Graydon Carter from a distance during his phenomenal quarter century run as Editor of Vanity Fair magazine he seemed distant and somewhat annoying. But his memoir deliciously dishes his fantastic tenure at the top of one of the publishing history’s great magazine successes up until the Internet era when a magazine rich in content and rich in success hit a wall. Carter finally comes out of his cone of silence to provide insights into his amazing role and colorful character as a hit journalist happy to dish on everybody of note, except himself.
Carter started life as a kid from Canada and came south to join Time Magazine when it too was a monster success, and to help foster Spy Magazine when it was fun but not a big money maker. Then he took over the Editorship of Vanity Fair from Tina Brown when she escaped to the New Yorker. At first he had to battle to survive,, but within a few years he put his touch on the magazine in an era ad pages went for six figures, writers were paid big bucks, sent worldwide to find stories, and Vanity Fair became a powerful phenom in American culture, and especially in Hollywood. Carter brought a smart mix of intelligence, savvy ideas, an ability to handle talent, and a taste for the good life that he happily shared with his team, backers and even advertisers.
Carter was lavish in his assignments for an amazing group of writers he nurtured including Michael Lewis, Maureen Orth and Mark Bowden. It was the end of an era when writer/reporters could spend months, even years, tracking down stories all over the glove, for fees now beyond what any publication would pay today. He also tells the story of how vanity Fair came to host the most star studded Oscar party each year.
Carter goes through the many amazing stories he was involved with, some thousands of words long, and the accomplishments from exposing the Watergate scandal source “Deep Throat” to coverage of the O.J Simpson trial and much more.
Around 2008, with the financial crunch and rise of the Internet and social media, the golden age of glossy magazines came to an end and so did his tenure. The days when there was unlimited money and he had a free reign meant it was time for him to move on.
As a journalist I found this a fascinating story and came away admiring him and his accomplishments much more than I had watching from the outside over the years.
What vanity Fair did in his ear and what he accomplished can never happen again but this was a great telling of an incredible story and a history well worth a listen.