Graydon Carter

Last updated

Graydon Carter
CM
Graydon Carter at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.jpg
Carter at the Vanity Fair celebration for the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born
Edward Graydon Carter

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
OccupationsMagazine editor, media founder
TitleEditor-in-chief, Vanity Fair (1992–2017) [1]
Spouses
Cynthia Williamson
​
​
(m. 1982;div. 2000)​
Anna Scott
​
(m. 2005)​
Children5

Edward Graydon Carter, CM is a Canadian journalist who was the editor of Vanity Fair from 1992 until 2017. [1] He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips, the satirical monthly magazine Spy in 1986. [2] In 2019, he co-launched a weekly newsletter with Alessandra Stanley called Air Mail , for "worldly cosmopolitans". [3] [4]

Contents

Early life

Carter was born on July 14, 1949, [5] in Toronto. [6] He grew up in Trenton, Ontario. [7] [8] At age 19, [9] Carter spent some time at Symington Yard, in Winnipeg, working as a railroad "groundman, at $2.20 an hour" (rather than as a higher paid lineman, as he "had a fear of heights"). [9]

Carter attended the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University, but did not graduate from either school. [10] [11]

Career

TCR and Time magazine

In 1973, Carter co-founded The Canadian Review (TCR), a general interest monthly magazine. [10] By 1977, TCR had become award-winning, and the third-largest magazine of its type in Canada. [10] Despite its critical success, TCR was bankrupt by 1978.[ citation needed ] [10] [ failed verification ]

In 1978, Carter moved to the United States and began working for Time magazine as a writer-trainee, where he met Kurt Andersen.[ citation needed ] [10] [ failed verification ] Carter spent five years writing for Time on the topics of business, law, and entertainment before moving to Life in 1983.[ citation needed ] [10] [ failed verification ]

Spy magazine

In 1986, Carter, Kurt Andersen, and Thomas L. Phillips Jr. founded the "hip humor magazine", Spy, which premiered in print in October 1986, after a $2.8-3.0 million initial fund-raising round (including from Phillips Jr.'s father). [12] [13] [10] [ better source needed ] which they ran for part of its 12 years[ when? ] before its ultimate end of publication in 1998.[ citation needed ] In this period,[ when? ] he was also an editor at The New York Observer .[ citation needed ]

Vanity Fair magazine

Carter in a publicity shot for Vanity Fair Graydon Carter 1.jpg
Carter in a publicity shot for Vanity Fair

Carter took the helm of Vanity Fair from Tina Brown (who left for The New Yorker ), [14] by invitation,[ citation needed ] Carter becoming editor of Vanity Fair in July 1992. [1] Carter's Vanity Fair combined high-profile celebrity cover stories with serious journalism.[ according to whom? ] He had an often idiosyncratic personal style, [14] as depicted in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People , a book by former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young.[ full citation needed ] (In a 2008 film adaptation of that book, Jeff Bridges played a character based on Carter. [15] [ dead link ])

On September 6, 2017, Carter announced his departure from the editorship of Vanity Fair in interview with The New York Times , where the date of actual departure was unspecified, but where he stated he would be on a "garden leave" until the end of 2017. [1] [ needs update ]

Vicky Ward (Farmer sister) controversy

In a 2015 The Daily Beast article, [16] 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—Carter claimed in communications with David Folkenflik of NPR —removed from the profile as they did not meet the magazine's legal threshold for publication at the time.[ verification needed ] [17] [18]

Air Mail newsletter

In 2019, Carter co-launched a weekly newsletter with Alessandra Stanley called Air Mail . [19] [4] [20] In 2025, Air Mail was acquired by Puck. As of October 2025, Carter was believed to be leaving Air Mail as part of the deal. [21] [ full citation needed ]

Other enterprises

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. [22]

As of this date,[ when? ] Carter was a co-owner, with his third wife, Anna Scott,[ verification needed ] of The Waverly Inn in the West Village. [23]

Books authored

Carter wrote What We've Lost, which was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September in 2004, which has been described in review as a comprehensive critical examination of the Bush administration. [24]

He published his memoir, When the Going was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, in March 2025. [25]

Theatrical and film productions

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, [26] and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles on December 3. [27]

Carter has co-produced two documentaries for HBO, Public Speaking (2010), directed by Martin Scorsese, which spotlights writer Fran Lebowitz, about Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub, [28] and His Way (2011), [29] which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy.[ citation needed ] He also was a producer of Chicago 10 , a documentary which premiered on the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival in early 2007.[ citation needed ] He was also a producer of Surfwise, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007,[ citation needed ] and Gonzo , a biographical documentary of Hunter S. Thompson directed by Alex Gibney.[ citation needed ]

Carter was an executive producer of the award-winning film, 9/11 , a film by Jules and Gedeon Naudet about the September 11 terrorist attacks, which aired on CBS.[ citation needed ] He also produced the documentary adaptation of the book The Kid Stays in the Picture about the legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans,[ citation needed ] which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and opened in theaters in July of that year.[ citation needed ] (In 2012, Carter had a minor role in Arbitrage .[ citation needed ])

Awards and recognition

Accolades during his tenure at Vanity Fair (from 1992-2017 [1] ) include his having won 14 National Magazine Awards and being named to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame. [30]

In 2017, Carter 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". [31]

Carter received an Emmy Award for his film 9/11,[ when? ][ citation needed ] as well as a Peabody Award for the same.[ when? ][ citation needed ]

Personal life

Carter and his wife Anna Scott in New York City in 2010 Anna Scott Graydon Carter 2010 Shankbone.jpg
Carter and his wife Anna Scott in New York City in 2010

As of 2010,[ needs update ] Carter had been married three times. [32] His first wife was Canadian; the two "met and divorced in his 20s" when Carter was still in Canada [32] (before his move to the United States at the age of 28 [33] ). His second marriage, to Cynthia Williamson lasted 18 years, [32] and they had four children, Ash, Max, Spike, and Bronwyn. [32] [33]

Carter and Williamson separated in July 2000, and in 2003 Carter began dating a British woman, Anna Scott. [32] Carter married Scott in 2005; as of 2010, they had one child, a daughter, Isabella Rose. [32]

In a 2003 interview, Carter described himself as a libertarian. [34]

Carter splits his time between Greenwich Village and Roxbury, Connecticut. [35] [36]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Grynbaum, Michael M. (September 7, 2017). "Graydon Carter to End 25-Year Run as Vanity Fair's Editor". The New York Times . Retrieved February 11, 2026.
  2. ↑ Leopold, Tom (November 16, 2006). "Spy magazine remembers 'The Funny Years' - CNN.com". CNN . Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  3. ↑ Hopkins, Kathryn (May 17, 2021). "Media People: Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley of Air Mail". Women's Wear Daily . Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Williams, Alex (February 1, 2019). "Graydon Carter Joins the Newsletter Brigade". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  5. ↑ Senior, Jennifer (December 11, 2000). "Graydon Rides the Wave - Nymag". New York Magazine . Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  6. ↑ Grynbaum, Michael M. (2025). Empire of the Elite :Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America. Simon & Schuster. p. 170.
  7. ↑ Elkann, Alain (April 13, 2025). "Graydon Carter". Alain Elkann Interviews. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  8. ↑ Carter, Graydon (December 10, 2008). "Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood:". www.amazon.com. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Carter, Graydon (March 14, 2025). "I'd Had Jobs Before, but None Like This". TheAtlantic.com . ISSN   2151-9463 . Retrieved October 13, 2025. Egged on by my parents, I wrote... asking for a job. I was 19 at the time. As... described... back to me, there were two types of positions available... groundman, at $2.20 an hour... [o]r... lineman, at $2.80 an hour. ...I had a fear of heights... said that I'd like... a groundman's job, which ... entailed lugging equipment to the linemen, who climbed telegraph poles all day. I was] told... to report to the Symington Yard, in Winnipeg.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Blum, David (1989). "Spying on 'Spy'". New York (April 17, 1989): 32–41, esp. p. 35. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
  11. ↑ Duffy, Andrew (May 17, 2025). "Graydon Carter's toques to riches story began with 'instructive failures' in Ottawa". Ottawa Citizen . Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  12. ↑ Crains NY Staff (1988). "Thomas Phillips, 32 / Chief Executive, Media6Degrees" (awardee biosketch). Crains New York Business (CrainsNewYork.com). Retrieved February 20, 2026.
  13. ↑ Buckley, Christopher (December 3, 2006). "Bonfire of Inanities". The New York Times . Retrieved February 20, 2026.
  14. 1 2 Grynbaum, Michael M. (September 7, 2017). "Graydon Carter's Varied Interests and Influence". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ Campbell, Christopher (May 18, 2007). "Jeff Bridges Will Play Graydon Carter". Cinematical.com. Retrieved February 11, 2026.[ dead link ]
  16. ↑ Ward, Vicky (January 7, 2015). "I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003" . Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  17. ↑ Folkenflik, David (August 22, 2019). "Why 'Vanity Fair' Story Left Out Abuse Allegations Against Epstein". NPR. Archived from the original on November 30, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  18. ↑ Ward, Vicky (March 2003). "The Talented Mr. Epstein". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Air Mail". airmail.news. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  20. ↑ Chayka, Kyle (August 19, 2019). "Graydon Carter's E-mail Newsletter for the Rich and Boring". The Nation . Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  21. ↑ Puck Acquires Air Mail, a Newsletter Merger for the Well-Heeled Inbox Retrieved January 24, 2026.[ bare URL ]
  22. ↑ Flickensher, Lisa (July 29, 2020). "Graydon Carter giving up helm at posh Monkey Bar after 12 years". New York Post. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  23. ↑ Kaufman, Leslie (August 13, 2008). "An Insiders' Clubhouse (Apply at the Door)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Three Ways of Looking at George W. Bush". The New York Times. August 29, 2004.
  25. ↑ Lewis, Roger (March 25, 2025). "Angry celebrities, 'unlimited' expenses – life at Vanity Fair in the 1990s". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Holdings Limited. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  26. ↑ "Bette Midler Is Showbiz Agent Sue Mengers in I'll Eat You Last, Opening on Broadway April 24". Playbill. April 24, 2013.
  27. ↑ Geffen Playhouse. "I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers at Geffen Playhouse – Best Live Shows and Theatrical Performances in Los Angeles". Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Public Speaking: Synopsis". HBO.
  29. ↑ "HBO: His Way: Home". HBO.
  30. ↑ "Graydon Carter Elected to Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  31. ↑ Malyk, Lauren (June 30, 2017). "Nine Ottawans appointed to the Order of Canada". Ottawa Citizen.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Aleksander, Irina (June 15, 2010). "Graydon Carter's Better Half". New York Observer . Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  33. 1 2 Wood, Gaby (November 10, 2002). "Graydon Carter: Vanity Fair Editor and Film Producer". The Observer . London England. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  34. ↑ Walters, Joanna (December 7, 2003). "How King of New York took battle to the Great Polariser". The Guardian . Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  35. ↑ Knight, Wendy (October 27, 2006). "Where Weekenders Find Ways to Stick Around". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  36. ↑ Chaffin, Joshua (October 14, 2022). "Life after Vanity—Inside Graydon and Anna Carter's Connecticut retreat". Financial Times. Retrieved January 11, 2024.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.