Primary Colors (novel)
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| Author | "Anonymous" later revealed as Joe Klein |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Political novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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January 16, 1996 |
| Media type | Hardcover and Paperback |
| Pages | 366 (hc) |
| ISBN | (hc) |
| OCLC | 33166616 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3550.A1 P75 1996 |
| Followed by | The Running Mate |
Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics is a roman à clef, a work of fiction that actually describes real life characters and events – namely, Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992. It has been compared to two other novels about American politics: Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men (1946) and O: A Presidential Novel (2011).
The book was originally published by an anonymous author, who was later found to be columnist Joe Klein. Klein completed a sequel of sorts, The Running Mate in 2000, focusing on the Primary Colors character of Charlie Martin.
An early reviewer opined that the author wished to remain unknown because "Anonymity makes truthfulness much easier". Later commentators called the publishing of the book under an anonymous identity an effective marketing strategy that produced more publicity for the book, and thus more sales, without calling into question the author's actual inside knowledge.
Several people, including former Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet, believed the style of writing had similarities to that of Klein. This was also supported by a quantitative stylometric analysis of the book by Vassar professor Donald Foster. Klein initially denied writing the book and publicly condemned Foster. Klein denied authorship again in Newsweek, speculating that another writer wrote it. Washington Post Style editor David von Drehle, in an interview, asked Klein if he was willing to stake his journalistic credibility on his denial, to which Klein agreed.
On July 17, 1996, after The Washington Post published the results of a handwriting analysis of notes made on an early manuscript of the book, Klein finally admitted that he was "Anonymous".
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Wikipedia