It was for a while one of the biggest mysteries in Washington. Who was anonymous?

We're not talking about the secret writer of a newspaper op-ed reviewing embarrassing information

about the current president of the United States. No, we're talking about the unknown author

of something much bigger and ambitious, a thinly disguised novel about a southern governor's bid

for the presidency whose campaign was constantly on the brink of implosion over stories about his

amorous affairs. The novel, a bestseller, was called primary colors, and while there was no

question it was based on Bill Clinton and his roller coaster ride to the presidency,

there were lots of questions about who wrote the book. The author was identified only as anonymous,

and for a few months in the summer of 1996 there was an active guessing game about who he or she

might actually be. With news organizations running lists of top suspects, along with adamant

denials from most of them. One magazine was especially engaged in the game. Newsweek, and at one

point it figured out an obscure former speechwriter for ex-New York governor Mario Cuomo as the

culprit. Then it turned out that Newsweek's editors knew exactly who anonymous was. One of its

star political writers, something the Newsweek editors chose not to share with its readers. We'll

look back at the hunt for anonymous and what it might tell us about the current search for the author

by the same name of that now notorious New York Times op-ed on today's episode of Very Treasure.

I'm Michael Isgov, Chief Investigative correspondent for Yahoo News.

And I'm Dan Clyde, Editor and Chief of Yahoo News.

You know, people have really forgotten this long ago episode from the 90s in the Clinton era,

but at the time it was kind of a really big deal. Who wrote primary colors this, you know,

very engaging novel everybody had written that was clearly about Bill Clinton focused on his

amorous affairs, even suggested that he might have been the father of an illegitimate kid in Arkansas,

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