Allen Drury - Information

Here's the Wikipedia article, rather a good one, I think, if only that it emphasizes his journalistic roots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Drury

Here's a review of Come Ninevah, Come Tyre (gotta love that title, evocative as all hell) and The Promise of Joy by Adam Cadre -- is this the Adam Cadre, the guy who does the great text adventure games? He does one where you play a slutty teenage girl. "Interstate IO" or something like that -- anyway, it's a really great game, check it out. As for the page, well, I rather suspect the particular books under discussion are stupid, too, but Mr. Cadre unfortunately is so snarky and acerbic he actually makes them sound like they rock beyond measure. Some brave soul should decide for himself, I guess:

http://adamcadre.ac/calendar/11812.html

One of the reasons it's hard to assess Drury properly is that he's bounced around like a ping-pong ball between liberal and conservative camps. Liberals think Advise and Consent is one of the stupidest books to win a Pulitzer; Conservatives tend to think it's a work of genius unfairly neglected because he's not properly liberal enough. Here's a typical example of that pov, from the Brothers Judd:

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/1067/Advise%20and%20C.htm

I like the Brothers Judd, but they're not especially good fiction reviewers, and this review has the note of special pleading that I dislike from this camp. Too often conservatives overpraise books just because they're conservative in theme: what's worse is that they're defensive about it. They implicity recognize the authority of the literary establishment (which truth to tell is quite liberal in it's politics) -- why else all the shirty "eggheads may not like it but we sixpack regular Joes do" stuff? Better by far not to play that game at all.

Here's a very nice page, liberal in tone (he's dismissive of the book proper) but he maps out alot of the historical roots of the thing. This is where I found out Drury wrote most of it as a first draft. (NOTE: the quote on the page says that Drury did multiple drafts of the first three sections, and only shorted the final two. I have no way of knowing, just my gut talking, but I doubt that's exactly the case. My gut tells me part three didn't get quite as much TLC as parts one and two. I think it shows.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~dbratman/drury.html

And here's a pretty well-written paen to Advise and Drury more generally, from Policy Review, of all places:

http://www.policyreview.org/oct99/kaplan_print.html

I think Kaplan rather overrates both Drury's skill and importance -- this is another case of special pleading, really, albeit more ornately presented. Actually, give me the Judds blunt talk any day -- Kaplan takes too much space to say the same exact thing.

I've seen other links, but they're dead or behind subscription walls or seem to be the same thing over and over (the usual online obits). Hitchens must've mentioned Drury once, in the New York Review of Books, no less (the Judds linked to a review of McCarry's no doubt amazing Shelley's Heart. Unfortunately nowadays you have to spend twenty six thousand dollars and cut off your left little finger before you can read any archive stuff from NYRB). I'm curious what he said. Terry Teachout also apparently did a piece on him for the Book Review.

More links or info always welcome.