If you've ever wondered, in the slightest, what it was like to work at a magazine during the prosperous 1990s and the early aughts, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's When the Going Was Good may be the book for you. It is an easy read of approximately 400 pages, documenting a time when reporters and writers were having a moment. If one were lucky enough to contribute to or staff-write for one of the national glossy magazines, it meant high salaries, expansive expense accounts, and engaging work trips for a publication partially bankrolled by loads of six-figure ads, plus the opportunity to cover and write in-depth on whatever was taping the current zeitgeist.

Carter, a Canadian with a flair for stylish clothes, stylish news features and long reads got his big break at Time magazine but for those interested in publishing trivia, he may be better known for his part in the origination of Spy, a 1980s satirical magazine that poked fun at the rich and the famous. Ironically, in becoming a long-term editor at Vanity Fair, Carter later became a part of the very establishment he parodied.

While long bits about his childhood, his non-editorial jobs and the WASP-ish colleagues he encountered in his early New York days could have been edited more, what stands out are the celebrity, celebrated writer and photographer anecdotes behind the scenes.

For example Carter writes about how he and veteran VF photographer Annie Lebowitz (fond of suits and tuxes) came to share the same tailor (once also used by Marlena Dietrich), of hanging out at MTV when rapper(s) DJ Jazzy Jeff and a pre-movie star Will Smith asked Carter for the tailor who did his overcoat. There's also his eighties-era profile of Donald Trump for GQ magazine, which, according to Carter, the future president hated, trimming the fat on famed writer Dominick Dunne's court stories so they became "compelling magazine narratives," and his Hollywood years putting together many Oscar parties and being taken into the confidences of Hollywood industry emeriti such as Creative Artists Agency (CAA) founder Mike Ovitz, producers Bob Evans and Ray Stark, one-time super agent Sue Mengers, and studio executives Barry Diller and Jerry Weintraub.

The Vanity Fair Oscar party reminiscences are hilarious, while others are so inside you would almost have to be an insider to get the joke. For example, you may or may not know who Sandy Gallin was. Still, at one time, he was the manager of Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, and Barbara Streisand at the top of their careers. According to Carter, Gallin was a bigger than life character who loved hanging with his many friends in glamorous settings. Those were also the days of practically the assistants of the assistants. The manager had one for everything he did including an assistant for reading and one for tracking down and calling famous people, including Queen Elizabeth.

Another interesting aspect is Carter's willingness to admit his naivete of the ways of Hollywood with the many famous names who showed him the ropes. In sections of the book, he admits to being nervous planning his VF parties while working under legendary Conde Nast publisher Si Newhouse, once tracking down and inviting an obscure director Carter had never heard of because Newhouse wanted to "shake his hand."

The double and triple-flap Vanity Fair group photo or actors or actresses on the Hollywood issue cover came from Carter's love of group portraits. Lebovitz wasn't really into it at first, Carter writes, but later those covers made her famous and became the prototype with editors, photographers, and the general public.
The book also covers a smattering of Carter's rubbing shoulders with high society. Whether it's his expense-account dinners with Hollywood A-listers, "tech moguls," and the like at the renown Hotel du Cap in France, hosting Reinaldo and (designer) Carolina Herrera or accompanying Princess Margaret around New York, for Carter it was all part of making friends, doing business and promoting the brand.

However, never think it's all about Carter. The editor generously reminds readers that in those halcyon days, writers were important. He chronicles the stories covered by regular contributors Dunn, Maureen Orth, Sebastian Junger, Marie Brenner, Amy Fine Collins, Bob Colacello, Bryan Burrough, and late writers Nick Tosches and Christopher Hitchens. Lucky writers' lengthy exposés and feature stories often led to movie and book deals long before the streamers.

However, there is that uber-famous American best-selling writer whose article Carter killed. Yep, you will have to read the book for that one.