Drury, Allen (1918-1998), was an American novelist and journalist. He was a reporter in Washington, D.C., for United Press International and The New York Times during the 1940’s and 1950’s. His inside knowledge of political life in the capital provided the background for his novels. Drury won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel Advise and Consent, a story of political intrigue centering on U.S. Senate confirmation hearings for a secretary of state.
Allen Stuart Drury was born in Houston. He grew up in California and graduated from Stanford University in 1939. During the early 1940’s, he was a Senate reporter for United Press International. He joined The New York Times in 1954 and wrote Advise and Consent while serving as a Washington reporter for the newspaper. Drury wrote 20 novels, most of them about politics. They include A Shade of Difference (1962), Capable of Honor (1966) and its sequel Preserve and Protect (1968), The Throne of Saturn (1971), The Promise of Joy (1975), and The Hill of Summer (1981). He also wrote two novels set in ancient Egypt, A God Against the Gods and Return to Thebes (both 1976).
