When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines

Carter reflects on how subjects respond to stories written about them. He quotes Evelyn Waugh’s thoughts on the matter by way of example. In particular, Carter notes how offended some people have gotten after finding their names in Vanity Fair. One time, Sue Mengers was upset by how the magazine described the size of her home. Another time, Nick’s brother John Gregory Dunne, a writer married to writer Joan Didion, was upset by how the magazine remarked on Nick’s writing achievements when he was meant to be the writer of the family. However, the most significant of these incidents involved Donald Trump.

When Carter was working with Spy, he and his team frequently remarked on Trump’s small hands. The joke bothered Trump for years, and he often made public attempts to correct this impression. Whenever Vanity Fair wrote a piece about him, Trump would get upset, too. Carter lists a series of tweets where Trump attacked Carter directly. Carter has had the tweets printed, framed, and displayed on his wall for years.

Carter admits that he has made mistakes with the editors he’s brought onto the Vanity Fair team. He was usually careful about these hires, but there were times he believes he should have been more discerning.