Greydon Carter of Life “When You Go”

For 25 years as a former Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter is a man in his family and father of five grown children, well known for his signature white hair and urban elegance.

Growing up the middle class in Ottawa, he celebrates the mix of Canadian influence and inner power for his lasting career at the top of the magazine’s glittering world. “Canadians are not weak,” he said. “We may seem familiar on the outside, but if we can survive playing hockey on the open rink in 30° weather, we will develop the spine.”

He tells the story of watching the Superliner flip over.

I asked, “Before that, have you explained yourself to be working?”

“No. I had no ambition at all,” he replied.

He left university before graduating, but was passionate about magazines and set his sights on New York in 1978. It was a summer in town. He was not dressed for success. “I was wearing a Canadian tweed coat and it was as thick as this chair. I’ve never felt this heat in my life, and I was soaked in sweat. So I sat there for 30 minutes… trying to cool it down.”

He left the job of launching his career in the magazine’s golden age, as he writes in “The Adventures of the Magazine’s Last Golden Age” (published Tuesday by the Penguin Press), as he writes in his memoirs.

And the timing was also golden. In 1985, New York City was ripe for satire. “The invention of an investment banker has changed everything in New York,” Carter said. “People were showing off their money in a big way.”

He was a co-founder of a spy magazine and was cheeky and fearless. Among his subjects: a real estate mogul named Donald Trump. “I met him a few years ago,” Carter said. “I was assigned to him to tell stories. I was hanging out with him for three weeks, and I wrote stories and I pointed out that he was a sharp one from Queens and he was trying to make it.

“So, with spy we came up with funny epithetes for people, and in the case of Trump, we called him a ‘short fantasy’ whenever we mentioned his name. And he hated it! ”

And yes, Carter has double citizenship – the American and Canadians. “How do you feel at this point?” I asked.

“Especially last month or so, I feel Canadian and very proud, and I feel very proud that Mark Carney is Prime Minister,” Carter replied.

The New York Observer was a weekly Manhattan newspaper that was memorable in the colour of paper printed when Carter saw the possibility and left a spy in 1991.

And in a year, observers were able to be seen in the offices of major editors across Europe (as Carter sent it). However, a visiting American publisher took notes. “And he comes back thinking, ‘This is a massive international hit!'” Carter laughed.

Si Newhouse, head of Condé Nast Magazine Empire, has made Graydon Carter editor the editor of Vanity Fair. “I’ve flew Concord over 60 times,” Carter said. “When I went to another city, I had a car and a driver. There was a car and a driver in New York. It was very intelligent. But at the same time, it was all based on making a magazine you’ve made that successful.”

Through the magazine and his own oversized persona, Carter was often said to quietly shape pop culture as a tastemaker. He was responsible for bringing Monica Lewinski back to reset… revealed the identity of the “deep throat”…Squierling Diana, Princess of Welsh in London…A global and global introduction to Tom Cruise and his family, as well as Caitling Jenner.

However, Jennifer Aniston was the best sales cover of all time. “You look back now and think, ‘What was all the fuss?” “But she just broke up with Brad Pitt, and this is what she’s talking about him and she’s crying.”

A successful magazine is bigger than the total subscription and newsstand sales. For 31 years, Vanity Fair was synonymous with Oscar Party. This year’s party in Hollywood was the magic of Greydon Carter. “It’s not how you put people in, it’s a way to keep people out,” he said.

So, what about the political party he is very good at? “There was no VIP section,” he explained. “Once you come in, everyone is the same. And with the parties, it’s about the right curation of people.”

“Curation is very important to everything you did,” I said.

“If it’s interesting for me, I think it might be interesting for others,” he replied.

Greydon Carter resigned from Vanity Fair in 2017 and retired to the southern part of France. It didn’t take.

His idea of ​​retirement was to start something brand new. “I wanted to make something like a temporary work,” he said.

Air Mail is an email newsletter. It began six years ago and is said to have 500,000 subscribers in 219 countries. Filled with thoughtful features and travel and shopping recommendations (all carefully curated, of course), Carter is 76 years old and still finds a way to attract readers.

Imprezario says he “stumbled” a lot along the way. Asked to define “stumbling,” Carter replied, “Life is a bone yard of small mistakes and fumbles.”

“I always felt that the introduction was much more interesting if I skipped the highlights, and that’s where everything happens,” I said.

“100%,” Carter said. “Success is really boring. Failure is much more appealing.”

Read the excerpt: “When It’s Good” by Greydon Carter

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A story created by Mary Rafari. Editor: Ed Gibnish.

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