The invention discloses a method for preparing anticarcinogen vorinostat. The method includes: (1) subjecting suberic anhydride and aniline to contact reaction in water and 1,4-dioxane at the temperature of 5-10 DEG C in the presence of CuI, performing filtering after reaction is finished, regulating the pH of filtrate to 5-6, performing suction filtration, washing filter cake obtained after suction filtration, and drying to obtain 7-phenylcarbamoylheptanoic acid; (2) dissolving the 7-phenylcarbamoylheptanoic acid in methanol, adding cation exchange resin and ZnCl2, heating to 50-55 DEG C for reaction for 3 hours, concentrating, extracting with ethyl acetate, concentrating, washing with petroleum ether, and drying to obtain suberanilic acid methyl ester; (3) subjecting hydroxylamine hydrochloride and sodium methoxide to stirring reaction in absolute methanol for 0.5-1h, filtering prior to adding the suberanilic acid methyl ester into filtrate for reaction at the temperature of 40 DEG C for 3-5 hours, cooling to room temperature, regulating the pH to 7, performing suction filtration, washing filter cake, and performing recrystallization with ethyl alcohol to obtain the vorinostat. The method is high in yield, quick in reaction and simple to operate.