--- product_id: 732432310 title: "When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines" price: "₱6338" currency: PHP in_stock: true reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.ph/products/732432310-when-the-going-was-good-an-editors-adventures-during-last store_origin: PH region: Philippines --- # 2025 publication date Hardcover premium binding Memoir by renowned editor Graydon Carter When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines **Price:** ₱6338 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Own the story behind the stories — where media legends come alive! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines - **How much does it cost?** ₱6338 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ph](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/732432310-when-the-going-was-good-an-editors-adventures-during-last) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Hardcover Elegance:** A durable, stylish hardcover edition that commands presence on your professional bookshelf. - • **Exclusive Insider Access:** Unfiltered anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of Manhattan’s elite and media power players. - • **Curated Cultural Time Capsule:** Relive the 1990s-2000s media landscape with sharp, evocative sketches and vivid storytelling. - • **Join the Elite Reading Circle:** Ranked top 100 in professional biographies, this memoir is a must-have for media-savvy millennials craving cultural capital. - • **Step into the Last Golden Age:** Experience the cultural zenith of print magazines through insider stories from Vanity Fair’s iconic editor. ## Overview When the Going Was Good is Graydon Carter’s 2025 hardcover memoir capturing the glamour and grit of the last golden age of magazines. Published by Penguin Press, it offers a candid, richly detailed insider’s view of Vanity Fair’s heyday, Manhattan’s elite, and the cultural shifts of the 1990s and early 2000s. With evocative black-and-white sketches and a sharp narrative voice, this book is a definitive read for professionals who value media history and cultural influence. ## Description 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 Review: One of my favourite reads - I’ve read them all including the Edward Enniful biography, Tina Brown Vanity Fair Diaries, Nicholas Coleridge The Glossy Years. They all intertwine and this is one of my favourites. Great read! Review: An interesting and enjoyable read ---- with some notable bits unsaid - If you enjoy reading about the Manhattan power elite in the early years of the millennium (and I do) then this book is for you; an engaging read, filled with anecdote and character thumbnails by Graydon Carter, one of the country’s most successful mass market editors. Think of this as Mad Men updated to the turn of the twenty-first century, and centered on magazine publishing rather than advertising. To complain about the rampant name dropping in such a book misses the point. Name dropping is the whole reason for the exercise. The book is thus a memoir rather than an autobiography. There is a brief recounting of growing up in Canda in the 1950’s, but before too many pages we are off to the races with the co-founding of Spy magazine in New York. The dissolution of Carter’s second marriage (there was a very brief, youthful first union) and the meeting of his third wife and founding of a fresh family collectively gets two-thirds of one page. There are no photographs, but there are evocative full page black and white sketches by Eric Hanson preceding each chapter heading. Any memoir is an exercise in selective narration, and there are always cases where one considers what exactly may have been left out and why. For example, Mr. Carter is prone to citing long lists of people for praise (Great editors such as….; Talented writers including….; etc.) Here I always wonder who might have been deliberately omitted. Much more adroit than saying ”I never liked X” is to list all the terrific people you do like and simply leave X out. X will surely read the book, see the list, and feel the sting. Touché. He also notes in passing about the redoubtable Gore Vidal being a contributor over many years to Vanity Fair while Mr. Carter was the long-term editor there, but there is not a single anecdote about him. One wonders why. Besides possible outright omissions, there are also a number of instances between the lines that inform us about Mr. Carter’s perspective and point of view. He tells us plainly that he was hired on at Vanity Fair in 1992 at the salary of $600,000 per year (that’s about $1.4 million in 2025 dollars), so from that point on his is the story of a wealthy man. He also notes how tight money was for him prior to this, what with private school fees for the children and all, when he was making just $150,000 (that’s $380K in 2025). There is also a passing comment about how “so many kids these days” end up with careers “at a bank”. He also tells us that it was a misperception that he spent many evenings out during his Vanity Fair years, and that he only donned his dinner jacket two or three times a year. Yet a few pages later he notes that he dined at his favorite Manhattan restaurant about three nights a week. So, evidently, to him “evening out” applies only if costumed in evening wear. We are told by Carter that one year at the famous Vanity Fair Oscars party, he inadvertently arranged for Monica Lewinsky to be seated next to studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg, a noted Democratic Party supporter and friend of the Clintons, to Katzenberg’s considerable umbrage. Oops. Yet just a few pages previously we are told of the months and weeks of preparation that went into the planning of that lavish party each year, and the extreme attention to detail, especially vis-à-vis the guest list and seating arrangements (“treat each [table] as a separate dinner party”). One can draw one’s own conclusions. Lastly, since Mr. Carter is both a frequent author and a very successful editor it comes as a bit of a surprise to see on the title page the subheading “with James Fox” (the distinguished author of White Mischief among other things; his ex-wife is the great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud). And positively shocking is that such a renowned editor would allow his memoir to be published without an index. All in all, then, an interesting and enjoyable read, though with some notable bits unsaid. ## Features - Binding: hardcover - Language: english - Manufacturer: Penguin Press - Brand: Penguin Press - Publication date: 2025-03-25T00:00:01Z ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #95 in Biographies of Professionals & Academics #424 in Social Sciences | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 193 Reviews | ## Images ![When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/714o1jrx4XL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of my favourite reads *by T***R on 24 April 2025* I’ve read them all including the Edward Enniful biography, Tina Brown Vanity Fair Diaries, Nicholas Coleridge The Glossy Years. They all intertwine and this is one of my favourites. Great read! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An interesting and enjoyable read ---- with some notable bits unsaid *by M***T on 30 September 2025* If you enjoy reading about the Manhattan power elite in the early years of the millennium (and I do) then this book is for you; an engaging read, filled with anecdote and character thumbnails by Graydon Carter, one of the country’s most successful mass market editors. Think of this as Mad Men updated to the turn of the twenty-first century, and centered on magazine publishing rather than advertising. To complain about the rampant name dropping in such a book misses the point. Name dropping is the whole reason for the exercise. The book is thus a memoir rather than an autobiography. There is a brief recounting of growing up in Canda in the 1950’s, but before too many pages we are off to the races with the co-founding of Spy magazine in New York. The dissolution of Carter’s second marriage (there was a very brief, youthful first union) and the meeting of his third wife and founding of a fresh family collectively gets two-thirds of one page. There are no photographs, but there are evocative full page black and white sketches by Eric Hanson preceding each chapter heading. Any memoir is an exercise in selective narration, and there are always cases where one considers what exactly may have been left out and why. For example, Mr. Carter is prone to citing long lists of people for praise (Great editors such as….; Talented writers including….; etc.) Here I always wonder who might have been deliberately omitted. Much more adroit than saying ”I never liked X” is to list all the terrific people you do like and simply leave X out. X will surely read the book, see the list, and feel the sting. Touché. He also notes in passing about the redoubtable Gore Vidal being a contributor over many years to Vanity Fair while Mr. Carter was the long-term editor there, but there is not a single anecdote about him. One wonders why. Besides possible outright omissions, there are also a number of instances between the lines that inform us about Mr. Carter’s perspective and point of view. He tells us plainly that he was hired on at Vanity Fair in 1992 at the salary of $600,000 per year (that’s about $1.4 million in 2025 dollars), so from that point on his is the story of a wealthy man. He also notes how tight money was for him prior to this, what with private school fees for the children and all, when he was making just $150,000 (that’s $380K in 2025). There is also a passing comment about how “so many kids these days” end up with careers “at a bank”. He also tells us that it was a misperception that he spent many evenings out during his Vanity Fair years, and that he only donned his dinner jacket two or three times a year. Yet a few pages later he notes that he dined at his favorite Manhattan restaurant about three nights a week. So, evidently, to him “evening out” applies only if costumed in evening wear. We are told by Carter that one year at the famous Vanity Fair Oscars party, he inadvertently arranged for Monica Lewinsky to be seated next to studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg, a noted Democratic Party supporter and friend of the Clintons, to Katzenberg’s considerable umbrage. Oops. Yet just a few pages previously we are told of the months and weeks of preparation that went into the planning of that lavish party each year, and the extreme attention to detail, especially vis-à-vis the guest list and seating arrangements (“treat each [table] as a separate dinner party”). One can draw one’s own conclusions. Lastly, since Mr. Carter is both a frequent author and a very successful editor it comes as a bit of a surprise to see on the title page the subheading “with James Fox” (the distinguished author of White Mischief among other things; his ex-wife is the great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud). And positively shocking is that such a renowned editor would allow his memoir to be published without an index. All in all, then, an interesting and enjoyable read, though with some notable bits unsaid. ### ⭐⭐ Ennuyeux *by M***. on 6 June 2025* une auto-biographie sans grand intérêt. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ph/products/732432310-when-the-going-was-good-an-editors-adventures-during-last](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/732432310-when-the-going-was-good-an-editors-adventures-during-last) --- *Product available on Desertcart Philippines* *Store origin: PH* *Last updated: 2026-09-28*