Which Allen Drury political novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960?

Which Allen Drury political novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960? Advise and Consent won the prize.

Published in 1959, Allen Drury’s political novel centers on a contentious U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for Robert Leffingwell, a controversial nominee for secretary of state. The story explores Cold War anxieties, ideology, loyalty, political pressure, and the personal secrets that can shape public decisions.

The award has an unusual footnote: the 1960 fiction jury recommended Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King, but the Pulitzer board overrode that recommendation and selected Drury’s novel. That makes the answer especially worth remembering, since the jury’s preferred book and the official winner were different.

The title comes from the Constitution’s “advice and consent” clause, which gives the Senate a role in approving presidential appointments. The novel was also adapted into a 1962 film starring Henry Fonda and Walter Pidgeon, and it became the first in a series of Drury novels about Washington politics.