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

Carter describes his childhood in Canada. Although he was bright, he holds that he was an average child. He did okay in school but was never ambitious or a dreamer. However, he did dream of living in New York, working as a magazine editor, marrying someone he loved, and having a big family. He has accomplished all of these things since.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Carter was living primarily in Ottawa with his family. They often moved because his father was in the air force. He was obsessive about saving money, and the Carters often went without. Carter quickly learned to fend for himself. His parents weren’t hard on him, but they were emotionally distant, which he holds was typical of parents during the era. Carter was particularly fascinated by his parents’ outings or bridge nights with friends. Carter thought these humble affairs were glamorous.

In his adolescence and teens, Carter developed a love of reading, music, and movies. When he was 16, he found a copy of Mayfair—the English equivalent of Playboy—and hid it under his bed. This was his introduction to magazines. Not long later, he brought the magazine to camp when he was working as a counselor. He let the boys in his charge each have one photo from the issue. However, before an inspection, Carter confiscated the pages and burned them.

Carter continues to detail his young adult experiences. After high school, Carter wasn’t sure what he should do next. His parents encouraged him to get a job with the Canadian National Railway—a common occupation at the time. With the help of his aunt (who had a job with the railway), he secured a spot on a crew mending the telephone lines. He took a train to Winnipeg and joined his new team. It was freezing, conditions were trying, and the work was challenging. However, Carter made friends during his six months on the team. Finally one day, he saw a train pass and noticed the glamorous passengers inside; he immediately realized that he wanted to be riding inside the train instead of working on it.

Carter details his experiences after returning home from his railway job. He got back to Ottawa too late “to begin college in the fall” and “went looking for work” (47). Still unsure what he wanted do, Carter found a government job. The position required him to pay federal employees on a consultant basis. Here he met Bob Hixt, another consultant about Carter’s age. The two didn’t have much guidance or work to do and spent their days goofing off and feigning professionalism. However, Carter did help to write a report on employee payments using the office’s new computer system. This was his biggest contribution.

After leaving the consultant job, Carter tentatively pursued a career in architecture with the help of his childhood friend’s father (who was also an architect). Carter could draw but didn’t have a mind for math or engineering. He gave up on this dream and enrolled at the University of Ottawa. While there, he joined the literary and poetry magazine’s editorial team almost by happenstance. Carter immediately felt inspired by the work and developed new ideas to expand the publication’s reach. During this time, he met and married Marie Williams. (This relationship wouldn’t last, as Carter’s commitment to the magazine kept him away from home.) Meanwhile, he devoted himself to developing the Review. He dropped the poetry portion and tried to narrow the publication’s focus. He spent three years editing the Review, but barely attended class. He was less interested in academia but was proud of the Review’s growing reach. However, the wider their reach, the less money they made. He and his team soon decided to sell The Canadian Review to Saturday Night. The only thing that Carter took with him when he left the magazine was an old Royal Bank of Canada calendar, which he still has. He has carried it with him from his job at “Time, to Life, to Spy, to The New York Observer, to Vanity Fair, and to where [he is] now, Air Mail” (56).