Allen Drury, 80; Won Pulitzer as Novelist

Allen Drury, the news correspondent who turned his insider knowledge of the nation’s capital into the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Advise and Consent,” died Wednesday on his 80th birthday.

Drury, who went on to write 17 other novels and five nonfiction books, died of heart failure in a hospital near his home in Tiburon, Calif., his publisher Scribner announced.

The veteran journalist was covering the U.S. Senate for the New York Times in 1959 when he finally completed and published the political novel he had begun seven years earlier. The tale of political and sexual scandal involving the selection of a new secretary of state won immediate critical acclaim and became a bestseller. It earned the Pulitzer for literature the following year, launching a new career for Drury as an author.

“Advise and Consent” was made into a motion picture of the same title in 1962. It was directed by Otto Preminger with an all-star cast including Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon and Charles Laughton in his final film.

The title, often misspelled “Advice and Consent,” was taken from a sentence in the Constitution stating: “The Senate shall advise and consent to the president’s nominations to the Cabinet.”

In reviewing the book for The Times, Robert R. Kirsch said: “Drury, an experienced Washington correspondent, writes with authority on the men, women, ways and means of national and international politics. . . . (His) insight into the particular nature of American politics is the book’s strongest single point.”

Readers speculated about real life models for the characters much as readers have speculated concerning the more recent book and film “Primary Colors.” But Drury considered his fictional senators and others as composites, and wove them through successive books.

Never quite as successful as his first, his subsequent novels were nonetheless solidly popular and dealt with Washington’s labyrinthine handling of foreign affairs, the space race and other political issues. Among the titles are “A Shade of Difference,” “Capable of Honor,” “Preserve and Protect,” “The Throne of Saturn: A Novel of Space and Politics,” “Come Nineveh, Come Tyre: The Presidency of Edward M. Jason,” “The Promise of Joy: The Presidency of Orrin Knox,” “The Hill of Summer: A Novel of the Soviet Conquest,” “Pentagon” and “A Thing of State.”

Although critics and politicians praised Drury’s encyclopedic knowledge and ability to explain Washington politics and maneuvering, liberals sometimes flailed him for belaboring his conservative views of the Cold War and communist or Soviet threats.

“He unapologetically insisted on the gravity of the stakes in the Cold War, and he did so without joining any particular faction. While he faced savage, scornful opposition from many, some of his closest and most enduring friendships were with honorable people who disagreed with him on this central question,” his nephew Kenneth A. Killiany said Wednesday in a statement issued by the family through Scribner.

Drury’s final novel, which he had told his editor would probably be his last, “Public Men,” will be published in November.

His nonfiction books included collections of early articles and columns, a book about the Richard Nixon administration, and books reflecting his love of travel, such as “Egypt, the Eternal Smile” in 1980.

Born in Houston, Texas, Drury grew up in Porterville, Calif., and earned a journalism degree at Stanford University, where he worked on the Stanford Daily. He began his newspaper career on the weekly Tulare Bee and, at age 22, wrote its editorial that earned a national award from the professional journalism society Sigma Delta Chi. Drury worked for the Bakersfield Californian before serving in the Army during World War II.

After the war, he went to Washington, where he covered Capitol Hill for United Press (which became United Press International), Pathfinder magazine, the Washington Evening Star and, from 1954 to 1959, the New York Times.

The author’s family said two things that gave Drury special satisfaction were inspiring young people to enter politics and explaining American government to people in other countries.

A bachelor, Drury is survived by his sister, Anne Killiany, and two nephews.

Funeral services are scheduled at 1 p.m. Friday at Morrison’s Funeral Home in St. Helena, Calif.

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