To every thing there is a season. This season it’s Graydon Carter, books by or about whom are suddenly thick on the ground, the ground in this case being Amazon’s Web site, increasingly glutted with illegal rip-offs of real books—essentially slim, cheap, A.I.-generated summaries with deepfake covers. Still, one wants to keep an open mind and not prejudge literature in any form. So let’s wade through nine of the Carter canon together, in roughly descending order of quality:
Graydon Carter: The Untold Story of the Man Who Defined Modern Media, by Tristan Harcourt (independently published, 121 pages, $16.99), grabs the reader from the very first sentence—“Media landscapes transform with glacial slowness until they don’t shifting suddenly under the influence of singular individuals whose vision reshapes what we read”—and doesn’t let go, despite one’s feverish efforts.
Harcourt deftly places the reader in the middle of the action: “My first encounter with Graydon occurred in the winter of 1987, during the heyday of Spy magazine,” he writes in the foreword. “Manhattan lay blanketed in snow, and the publication’s cramped downtown offices buzzed with the peculiar energy that surrounds ventures both precarious and revolutionary.... What struck me immediately wasn’t just his Canadian-inflected speech or his penetrating gaze, but the absolute certainty with which he approached editorial decisions.” At this point Harcourt disappears entirely from the narrative, his presence in those cramped, buzzing offices never explained, but for the lucky reader the frisson lingers: It’s almost as if you were actually there.
To the roll call of great biographers—Caro, Chernow, Schiff, Isaacson, McCullough—one must now append the name “Munoz.” As in Tad. His Grayson Carter Constructive Biography: Becoming the Best Version of Yourself When the Going Was Good (independently published, 95 pages, $14.99) rebounds impressively from the misspelling of its subject’s name on the cover to deliver a concise, satisfying volume that is part biography (Chapter One: “The Formative Years of Graydon Carter”) and part self-help treatise (Chapter Three: “Overcoming Self-Sabotage and Limiting Beliefs”). Recommended for its potentially life-changing impact but also its brevity: you can read the whole thing while waiting for a “PLEASE REMOVE CARD” prompt at the A.T.M.
“The journey of self-betterment holds an irresistible charm,” writes Quentin Avila in Graydon Carter: The Vanity Fair Years (independently published, 117 pages, $16.99), and it sure does, never more irresistibly than when, just 35 pages in, the account of Carter’s accomplishments at Vanity Fair is interrupted by this curious interpolation:
“I appreciate your enthusiasm for this project, Umar, and the ambition of capturing the rich narrative of Graydon Carter’s life. Writing a chapter of this magnitude requires a careful balance of researching, storytelling, and respect for accuracy especially since Carter’s journey includes many significant milestones tied to well-documented events and intellectual property. What I can do is craft an original, narrative account of Graydon Carter’s early life and career, weaving in known themes and ideas while adhering to ethical writing practices … ”
Hmm. Pay no attention to the bot behind the curtain! (Oh, and Umar? You might want to hire an attorney.)
Graydon Carter: The Untold Story of a Canadian Journalist (independently published, 49 pages, $18.75) by James Rice, will forever remain untold, at least by James Rice, who is no longer listed as the author on Amazon. That would now be Mary Keenan. Copies of “The Rice,” as book collectors are already referring to that rare initial printing, are scarce and said to be trading for upward of $19. Worth it—if you can find one.
Graydon Carter: The Inspiring Story of a Canadian Journalist, by John Parker (independently published, 71 pages, $17.41), is indeed inspiring as it traces an un-put-down-able professional arc that begins humbly (“Early Life in Canada: On July 14, 1949, Graydon Carter was born in Toronto, Canada”) and builds to a satisfying conclusion (“Conclusion: There is no denying Graydon Carter’s influence on journalism”). Bonus points for the cover photo, which, unlike most of these books, is actually of Graydon Carter and not some computer-generated approximation.
Regrettably, the rest of the bunch all leave much to be desired.
There might be some value to The Simple but Powerful Lessons from When the Going Was Good Workbook: How Graydon Carter’s Book Can Help You in Everyday Life, by Thomas Isabella (independently published, 76 pages, $15.99), but detecting it would require getting through the title and proceeding from there.
Like the sought-after Rice edition of Graydon Carter: The Untold Story of a Canadian Journalist mentioned above, the print version of Graydon Carter Biography: The Mastermind Behind Vanity Fair and Modern Journalism, by Nathaniel Cross, has become a collector’s item—maybe: the book has been going in and out of print (unknown publisher, 109 pages, $12.99). A pity because, judging from the cover, the mastermind behind Vanity Fair and so much of modern journalism has a hitherto unreported and highly entertaining mustache. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the apex of this particular account. It’s definitely not a good sign when Carter co-founds Spy on page 15 and then co-founds it again on page 19.
When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, by Graydon Carter (Penguin Press, 432 pages, $28.80), also disappoints, particularly as it’s the real Carter’s very own entry in the genre. The author’s bizarre preoccupations with hockey, fonts, and writing utensils (“My issue with pencils goes back to my childhood”) almost makes one wish it had been A.I.-generated.
Last, and least, Graydon Carter: The Biography, by GC Press. (“GC Press”? Like the judge in the P. G. Wodehouse story confronted by “the prisoner Leon Trotsky,” we are inclined to view this as an assumed name.) This one is more than a little skimpy at $13.99 for just 30 pages—it has the heft, and literary merit, of a take-out menu. Pass.
So, a mixed bag. Clearly, the definitive Graydon Carter biography has yet to be written. But things move fast these days, and it’s probably worth checking again from time to time. Rest assured that someone, or something, is working on it right now.
George Kalogerakis, a Writer at Large at AIR MAIL, worked at Spy, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, where he was deputy op-ed editor. He is a co-author of Spy: The Funny Years and a co-editor of Disunion: A History of the Civil War