There is enough in Graydon Carter’s memoir to make a journalist today seethe. The ex-editor of Vanity Fair warns as much in the telling title of his new book: When the Going Was Good.
Gusseted by gossip and some good-mannered grousing about A-list folk including Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, and Harvey Weinstein (name-dropping is no bad thing in Carter’s book), When the Going Was Good chronicles his journey from young Canadian pup to New York institution, culminating in his 25-year tenure as editor of Vanity Fair, during which he founded the now iconic Oscars afterparty. This was the golden era of glossies, a time when cigarette smoke filled the office floor, budgets were non-existent, and expense accounts were as unfettered as the decadent parties that they paid for.
