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How the identity of "Anonymous" was discovered in 1996




Have you all read "Anonymous"? I resisted reading it for the longest time, thinking it would be trashy. But I got this wonderful surprise when it turned out to be very well written. I loved the movie, especially Billy Bob Thornton, who was perfect as James Carville.

Before the Trump op-ed, another mysterious anonymous author lit up Washington

By Ian Shapira
September 7

The cover of the political novel in 1996 was quite simple and spare. Red on the top. White on the bottom. A drawing of a frightened donkey, its eyeballs turned upward at the title: “PRIMARY COLORS.” But the book’s plot — about a Southern Democratic governor vying for the presidency, obviously based on Bill Clinton — lit up the Washington and Manhattan publishing scene for the two other words emblazoned on the book jacket: “by ANONYMOUS.”

Journalists and politicos were hungry to learn the identity of the author, a first-person novel from the point of view of Henry Burton, a George Stephanopoulos-like character who joins the campaign of Jack Stanton, a Southern governor who’s barreling through the gantlet of the 1992 Democratic primaries.

The novel’s plot and characters seemed so pointedly aligned to the realities of the Clinton campaign that readers were desperate to know whether the author was a campaign insider or a close Clinton friend committing friendship treason. Stanton, for instance, had a penchant for other women, a powerful wife and an affair with a woman named Cashmere McLeod — obviously, a stand-in for Gennifer Flowers — that comes to light in the midst of his White House bid.

“WANTED” read a gargantuan, all-caps headline on the cover of the Washington Post Style section in February 1996, a month after the book’s publication. Below featured the mug shots of 10 suspects, including Stephanopoulos, the cartoonist Garry Trudeau, Christopher Hitchens and Chris Buckley.

The potential culprits all had given cheeky or solemn denials, and alibis too.

“I write 30-second ads, not 300-page books,” said Mandy Grunwald, a Clinton campaign consultant.

“I wouldn’t be competent to write a book this good,” said James Carville.

“I am Spartacus,” said prominent political journalist and then-Newsweek columnist Joe Klein. “All of us who are accused of this should stand up and say, ‘I am Spartacus.’ And share the royalties.”

Over and over, Klein denied he was the author. To his friends. To his colleagues.

On July 17, 1996, after months in which the book topped the New York Times bestseller list, the Post published on its front page an exclusive investigation. “Handwritten changes to the manuscript of the novel ‘Primary Colors,’ the wildly successful satire of the 1992 Clinton campaign by an author known only as ‘Anonymous,’ appear to match the handwriting of Newsweek columnist and CBS commentator Joe Klein.”

The next day, Klein gave a statement: “My name is Joe Klein, and I wrote ‘Primary Colors.'”

With everyone in Manhattan and Washington exhaling, the pundit class then switched gears to play its other favorite game: Media Furor. But, in the end, it wasn’t too awful for Klein. Hollywood turned the book into a movie starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson and Billy Bob Thornton.

On Thursday, The Post asked Klein to reflect on the current anonymous scandal and his own from 22 years ago. Klein praised the anonymous Trump official’s bravery for coming forward. “I wanted to make people laugh and think about politics,” he said. “I was taking no risk at all. This person [the Trump official] is risking an awful lot. This is an act of patriotism.”

https://tinyurl.com/y6undd2k
9/16/2018, 11:59 am Link to this post PM Bellelettres
 
snowpixie Profile
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Re: How the identity of "Anonymous" was discovered in 1996


  ha ha. i must of been tuned out of politic at that time, i had no idea that it was a satire on Bill Clinton campaign.

 
9/16/2018, 3:08 pm Link to this post PM snowpixie Blog
 


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