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When the Going Was Good

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

Graydon Carter author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Atlantic Books

Publishing:27th Mar '25

£20.00

This title is due to be published on 27th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

When the Going Was Good cover

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.

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

ISBN: 9781804711002

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

432 pages

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