Allen Drury

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

American writer who wrote the 1959 political novel "Advise and Consent," for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960. "Advise and Consent" explores the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, who is a former member of the Communist Party. It is notable for the way that Drury dealt sympathetically with the youthful homosexual affair of Senator Brig Anderson. From 1943 to 1945, Drury worked as the United States Senate correspondent for United Press. After leaving UP, he freelanced for a year, eventually moving to the Washington Evening Star, where he gained a reputation for the quality of his writing. Various pieces from this period were collected in a volume entitled "Three Kids in a Cart." In 1954 Drury was hired as a reporter for The New York Times. In his spare time, he wrote the novel which would become 1959's "Advise and Consent." The novel uses several incidents from Drury's fifteen years in Washington as pegs for the story, about a controversial nominee for Secretary of State. The novel spent 102 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. It was adapted into a well-received Broadway play by Loring Mandel, who is known for a highly successful career writing for television. Otto Preminger directed an acclaimed 1962 film starring Henry Fonda. With the success of "Advise and Consent," Drury left The New York Times. He became a political correspondent for Reader's Digest, but wrote very little for it. From then on, his only major publications were his books. He followed "Advise and Consent" with several sequels. Drury lived in Tiburon, California from 1964 until his death by cardiac arrest on 2 September 1998 at San Francisco, California on his eightieth birthday. Drury had completed his 20th novel, "Public Men," just two weeks before his death. Drury was never married. Link to Wikipedia biography