Allen Drury

Who was Allen Drury?

Allen Stuart Drury (September 2, 1918 – September 2, 1998) was an American novelist. Drury was born in Houston, Texas, to Alden Monteith Drury (1895–1975), a citrus industry manager, real estate broker, and insurance agent, and Flora Allen (1894–1973), a legislative representative for the California Parent-Teacher Association. The family moved to Whittier, California, where Alden and Flora had a daughter, Anne Elizabeth (1924–1998). Drury was a direct descendant of Hugh Drury (1616–1689) and Lydia Rice (1627–1675), daughter of Edmund Rice (1594–1663), all of whom were early immigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Allen Stuart Drury grew up in Porterville, California, and earned his B.A. During World War II, he was a reporter in the Senate, closely observing Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, among others. Long afterwards, it was still being praised as ‘the definitive Washington tale’.

His diaries from this period were published as A Senate Journal 1943–45.

Historical significance

He would convert these experiences into his first novel Advise and Consent, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960.