When the Going Was Good
An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Atlantic Books
Published:27th Mar '25
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A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 IN THEINDEPENDENT, 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.
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
The journalism stories and the character analysis, as Elizabeth Hardwick liked to call gossip, are first-rate. * New York Times Book Review *
[A] breezy memoir. There's Hollywood gossip, score-settling and tales from the era of limitless editorial budgets * Monocle *
ISBN: 9781804711002
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
432 pages
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