Graydon Carter

Early life

Carter was born in Toronto. After high school in Trenton, Ontario and a six-month stint as a lineman for Canadian National Railways, Carter attended the University of Ottawa followed by Carleton University, but never graduated from either school.

Career

Magazines and authorship

In 1973, Carter co-founded The Canadian Review, a monthly general interest magazine. By 1977, The Canadian Review had become award-winning and the third-largest circulating magazine in Canada. Despite its critical success, The Canadian Review was bankrupt by 1978.

In 1978, Carter moved to the United States and began working for Time as a writer-trainee, where he met Kurt Andersen. Carter spent five years writing for Time on the topics of business, law, and entertainment before moving to Life in 1983. In 1986, Carter and Andersen founded Spy, which ran for 12 years before it ultimately ceased publication in 1998. Carter was then editor at The New York Observer before being invited by Vanity Fair to take over for Tina Brown, who left for The New Yorker. He became editor of Vanity Fair in July 1992.

Carter's Vanity Fair combined high-profile celebrity cover stories with serious journalism. His often idiosyncratic personal style was depicted in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, a book by former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young. Jeff Bridges played a character based on Carter in the 2008 film adaptation.

Carter is the author of What We've Lost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2004), a comprehensive critical examination of the Bush administration.

In a 2015 The Daily Beast article, former Vanity Fair journalist Vicky Ward wrote that she had interviewed the family of two young sisters (later identified as Annie and Maria Farmer) and discovered credible reports of molestation amidst a 2003 profile assignment on financier Jeffrey Epstein. The allegations were removed from the profile as they did not meet the magazine's legal threshold for publication at the time.

In 2017, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston for "contributions to popular culture and current affairs as a skilled editor and publisher".

On September 7, 2017, Carter announced his departure from the editorship of Vanity Fair. He was on gardening leave until the end of 2017. Accolades during his tenure include his having won 14 National Magazine Awards and being named to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Carter co-launched a weekly newsletter with Alessandra Stanley called Air Mail. In 2025, Air Mail was acquired by Puck. Carter was believed to be leaving Air Mail as part of the deal.

Producer

Carter was a producer of I'll Eat You Last, a one-woman play starring Bette Midler, about legendary Hollywood talent agent Sue Mengers. The show, directed by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello, opened at the Booth Theatre in New York City in April 2013, and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles on December 3.

Carter has co-produced two documentaries for HBO, Public Speaking (2010), directed by Martin Scorsese, which spotlights writer Fran Lebowitz, and His Way (2011), about Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub, which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. He also was a producer of Chicago 10, a documentary which premiered on the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival in early 2007. He was also a producer of Surfwise, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007, and Gonzo, a biographical documentary of Hunter S. Thompson directed by Alex Gibney.

Carter was an executive producer of 9/11, a film by Jules and Gedeon Naudet about the September 11 terrorist attacks, which aired on CBS. Carter received an Emmy Award for 9/11, as well as a Peabody Award. He also produced the documentary adaptation of the book The Kid Stays in the Picture, about the legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans. It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and opened in theaters in July of that year. In 2012, Carter had a minor role in Arbitrage.

Personal life

Carter has been married three times. His first wife was Canadian; the marriage was dissolved before Carter moved to the United States at the age of 28. His second marriage to Cynthia Williamson lasted 18 years and they had four children. The couple divorced in 2000. Carter married Anna Scott in 2005. They have a daughter.

Carter splits his time between Greenwich Village and Roxbury, Connecticut. He is a co-owner of The Waverly Inn at 16 Bank Street in the West Village.

In 2009 Carter and Jeff Klein became partners in the Monkey Bar, a New York City bar and restaurant eatery with a history dating to 1936. Both men sold their interest in the property in 2020.

In a 2003 interview, Carter described himself as a libertarian.

He published his memoir, When the Going was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, in March 2025.

Bibliography

• "Vanity Fair's" Hollywood (2000), (editor)
• What We've Lost (2004),
• Tom Ford: Ten Years (2004), (with Tom Ford, Anna Wintour and Bridget Foley)
• Oscar Night: 75 Years of Hollywood Parties (2004), (editor)
• Spy: The Funny Years (2006), (co-author, editor)
• When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines (2025),

Notes

References

1. Carter, Graydon. (2025-03-14). "I’d Had Jobs Before, but None Like This". The Atlantic.
2. (1989). "Spying on 'Spy'". [[New York (magazine).
3. (September 7, 2017). "Graydon Carter's Varied Interests and Influence". [[The New York Times]].
4. Christopher Campbell. (May 18, 2007). "Jeff Bridges Will Play Graydon Carter". Cinematical.com.
5. (August 29, 2004). "Three Ways of Looking at George W. Bush". The New York Times.
6. Ward, Vicky. (January 7, 2015). "I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003".
7. Ward, Vicky. (March 2003). "The Talented Mr. Epstein".
8. Folkenflik, David. (22 August 2019). "Why 'Vanity Fair' Story Left Out Abuse Allegations Against Epstein". NPR.
9. Malyk, Lauren. (June 30, 2017). "Nine Ottawans appointed to the Order of Canada". [[Ottawa Citizen]].
10. Grynbaum, Michael M.. (September 7, 2017). "Graydon Carter to End 25-Year Run as Vanity Fair's Editor".
11. "Graydon Carter Elected to Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame".
12. "Air Mail".
13. Williams, Alex. (February 1, 2019). "Graydon Carter Joins the Newsletter Brigade". [[The New York Times]].
14. Chayka, Kyle. (August 19, 2019). "Graydon Carter's E-mail Newsletter for the Rich and Boring". [[The Nation]].
15. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/business/media/puck-buys-airmail.html Puck Acquires Air Mail, a Newsletter Merger for the Well-Heeled Inbox] Retrieved January 24, 2026
16. (April 24, 2013). "Bette Midler Is Showbiz Agent Sue Mengers in I'll Eat You Last, Opening on Broadway April 24". Playbill.
17. Geffen Playhouse. "I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers at Geffen Playhouse – Best Live Shows and Theatrical Performances in Los Angeles".
18. "Public Speaking: Synopsis". HBO.
19. "HBO: His Way: Home". [[HBO]].
20. Aleksander, Irina. (June 15, 2010). "Graydon Carter's Better Half". [[New York Observer]].
21. Wood, Gaby. (November 10, 2002). "Graydon Carter: Vanity Fair editor and film producer". [[The Observer]].
22. Knight, Wendy. (2006-10-27). "Where Weekenders Find Ways to Stick Around". The New York Times.
23. Chaffin, Joshua. (2022-10-14). "Life after vanity – inside Graydon and Anna Carter's Connecticut retreat". Financial Times.
24. Kaufman, Leslie. (2008-08-13). "An Insiders' Clubhouse (Apply at the Door)". The New York Times.
25. Flickensher, Lisa. (2020-07-29). "Graydon Carter giving up helm at posh Monkey Bar after 12 years".
26. Walters, Joanna. (December 7, 2003). "How King of New York took battle to the Great Polariser". [[The Guardian]].
27. (25 March 2025). "Angry celebrities, 'unlimited' expenses – life at Vanity Fair in the 1990s". Telegraph Media Group Holdings Limited.