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

Carter describes his experiences after the Review folded. Now without a job, he wasn’t sure where to go next. Although he hadn’t completed his degree, Carter was still interested in editing. He contacted the editors at The Paris Metro in Paris about a job. They gave Carter an audience, but they couldn’t offer him a paying position. Discouraged, Carter returned to Canada and pursued a publishing program at Sarah Lawrence in New York. While there, he privately met with all of the program’s visiting editors. (He was still determined to move to the city.) Finally, he secured a meeting with Ray Cave from Time. Ray didn’t have a position for him, but when Carter insisted he needed a job immediately, Ray caved. He returned to Canada, packed his things, bought a car, and drove back to New York.

Carter insists that his life wasn’t glamorous when he first moved to the city in the summer of 1978. It was hot, his apartment was small, he had no new clothes, and he was making little money. However, he felt happy. At Time, he was a floater, or employee who floated between departments, doing whatever work was needed. His favorite task was writing the People page, which presented “amusing stories about the well known or the infamous” (69).