[2] During his fifty-year writing career, Carter produced hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, dozens of short stories, and 17 books including five novels.

Carter had osteogenesis imperfecta, which made his bones brittle throughout his life and often required him to stay in bed or walk with crutches, or later use a wheelchair.

[2] Carter wrote in a number of genres including popular science, health, socialist realist fiction, romance, and biography.

[2] His works included Sea of Destiny: the Story of Hudson Bay, Our Undefended Back Door (1940), a book that argued the Canadian north was susceptible to Nazi invasion and should be developed and militarized along the lines of the Soviet north in order to prevent such an eventuality, Night of Flame (1942), a novel set in a hospital that explored themes of class conflict, and Stalin's Life (1943), a hagiographical biography of Stalin.

[5][6][7] As well as being president of the CSFSS from 1949 to 1960, with Dorise Nielsen as executive secretary, and engaging in national lecture tours to promote friendship with the Soviet Union, Carter was editor and publisher of the Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society's newsletter, News-Facts About the USSR from 1950 to 1956 and of the glossy pro-Soviet magazine Northern Neighbors from 1956 to 1989.