Grove Press UK acquires former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's memoir

Grove Press UK is to publish a memoir by former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. 

Atlantic Books group associate publisher Clare Drysdale bought UK & Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Carter’s When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines from Tom Dussel at Penguin Press for Grove Press UK. The book will be published in hardback, export trade paperback, audio and e-book on 27th March 2025.

The synopsis says: "From the pages of Vanity Fair to the red carpets of Hollywood, to the courtrooms of Fleet Street, editor Graydon Carter’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of magazines when they were the vanguard of culture."

It adds: "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."

Drysdale said of the book: "It’s elegant, dishy, propulsive, meticulously written, generous and merciless as required. Reading Carter’s Vanity Fair at the turn of the millennium was like having a front-row seat to the zeitgeist and I’m certain other readers will share my thrill at getting an all-access look inside its projection room."

Carter added: "You never realise you’re in a golden age until it’s over. I wanted to capture the enterprising spirit and sheer fun of those wonderful years for others."