SOURCE: Cooper, Matthew. “Whodunnit?” New Republic 214, no. 5 (29 January 1996): 11–12.

In the following review, Cooper speculates on the identity of the anonymous author of Primary Colors.

“Cooper? Stephanopoulos. 8:00, Tuesday morning. I think I got it: Peter Knobler, ghost writer. All's Fair by Mary Matalin, James Carville. Bye.”

You would think that with the Clinton administration facing budget negotiations and the First Lady's Whitewater fiasco, the phone message left on my answering machine by George Stephanopoulos might have had something to do with one of these ongoing crises. But the Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy and I have been trading calls about a far more important topic: Who wrote Primary Colors?

Was ist das Primary Colors? It's a novel, a terrific, anonymously written novel about the early months of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. Only the galleys of the book are out. The real McCoy is scheduled to...