It was a rather audacious bid. The Washington Post had just confirmed suspicions that he was the famously faceless Anonymous, author of Primary Colors , a roman clef skewering the Clintons. Klein tried to make light of the episode in a coming-out press conference in New York, showing up with an impish smile and a Groucho Marx disguise. But when the scorps lashed out with angry questions, Klein immediately transmuted himself from prankster to misunderstood altruist.
Anonymity imposes a strict discipline and an almost religious humility.
I am a better person for having kept my mouth shut . . . . I was protecting the integrity of this project. Such speculation sold more books. So when Klein fell under suspicion as a possible author, he did his best to quell it, even voicing consternation to colleagues about an unflattering portrait of the Joe Klein-type character in the novel. Like Dr. Henry Jekyll, Klein tried to divide himself into two beings.