Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories. After moving to the United States, she started writing screenplays for Merchant Ivory films. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala studied at Queen Mary University of London. The recorded working language is English and German. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellows Program, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Writers Guild of America Award.

• Born — 7 May 1927 • Birthplace — Cologne, Weimar Republic • Died — 3 April 2013 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Birth Name — Ruth Prawer • Education — Queen Mary University of London • Children — 3, including Renana • Relatives — Siegbert Salomon Prawer (brother) • Period — 1955–2013 • Occupation — * Novelist • screenwriter • Citizenship — * United Kingdom (1948–2013) • United States (1986–2013)

Ruth Prawer was born on 7 May 1927 in Cologne, Germany, during the Weimar Republic, to Jewish parents Marcus and Eleanora (Cohn) Prawer. Marcus was a lawyer who had moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription, and Eleanora's father was cantor of Cologne's largest synagogue. Her father was accused of having Communist links, and was arrested and then released. Ruth witnessed the violence unleashed against the Jews during the Kristallnacht. The family was among the last group of refugees to flee the Nazi regime in 1939, emigrating to Britain. During World War II, Prawer lived in Hendon in London, experienced the Blitz and began to speak English rather than German. She read the works of Charles Dickens, and she read Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind while taking refuge in air raid shelters during the Luftwaffes bombing of London. She became a British citizen in 1948. The following year, her father committed suicide after discovering that 40 members of his family had been murdered during the Holocaust. Prawer attended Hendon County School) and then Queen Mary College, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951.

Ruth Prawer moved to India in 1951 after marrying Indian Parsi architect Cyrus Jhabvala. Her first novel, To Whom She Will, was published in 1955. It was followed by Esmond in India (1957), The Householder (1960) and Get Ready for Battle (1963). The Householder, with a screenplay by Jhabvala, was filmed in 1963 by Merchant and Ivory. During her years in India, she wrote scripts for the Merchant-Ivory duo for The Guru (1969) and Autobiography of a Princess (1975). She collaborated with Ivory for the screenplays for Bombay Talkie (1970) and ABC After-school Specials: William - The Life and Times of William Shakespeare (1973). In 1975, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust, later adapted into a film. That year, she moved to New York where she wrote The Place of Peace. Her husband also moved to US permanently in late 1980s, and the couple lived on the east coast until Ruth's death in 2013. Cyrus Jhabwala died in Los Angeles in 2014. Jhabvala "remained ill at ease with India and all that it brought into her life." She wrote in an autobiographical essay, Myself in India (published in London Magazine) that she found the "great animal of poverty and backwardness" made the idea and sensation of India intolerable to her, a "Central European with an English education and a deplorable tendency to constant self-analysis." Her early works in India dwell on the themes of romantic love and arranged marriages and are portraits of the social mores, idealism and chaos of the early decades of independent India. Writing about her in the New York Times, novelist Pankaj Mishra observed that "she was probably the first writer in English to see that India's Westernizing middle class, so preoccupied with marriage, lent itself well to Jane Austenish comedies of manners."

Jhabvala moved to New York City in 1975 and lived there until her death in 2013, becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1986. She continued to write and many of her works including In Search of Love and Beauty (1983), Three Continents (1987), Shards of Memory (1995) and East into Upper East: Plain Tales From New York and New Delhi (1998) portray the lives and predicaments of immigrants from post-Nazi and post-World War Europe. Many of these works feature India as a setting where her characters go in search of spiritual enlightenment only to emerge defrauded and exposed to the materialistic pursuits of the East. The New York Times Review of Books chose her Out of India (1986) as one of the best reads for that year. In 1984, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2005 she published My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past with illustrations by her husband and the book was described as "her most autobiographical fiction to date".

In 1963, Jhabvala was approached by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to write a screenplay for their debut The Householder, based on her 1960 novel. During their first encounter, Merchant later said Jhabvala, seeking to avoid them, pretended to be the housemaid when they visited. The film, released by Merchant Ivory Productions in 1963 and starring Shashi Kapoor and Leela Naidu, met with critical praise and marked the beginning of a partnership that resulted in over 20 films. The Householder was followed by Shakespeare Wallah (1965), another critically acclaimed film. There followed a series of films, including Roseland (1977), Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978), The Europeans (1979), Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980), Quartet (1981), The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) and The Bostonians (1984). The Merchant Ivory production of Heat and Dust in 1983 won Jhabvala a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay the following year. She won her first Academy Award for her screenplay for A Room with a View (1986) and won a second in the same category for Howards End six years later. She was nominated for a third Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay the following year for The Remains of the Day. Her other films with Merchant and Ivory include Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Surviving Picasso (1996), A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998) (the screenplay for which she co-authored with Ivory), The Golden Bowl (2000) and The City of Your Final Destination (2009), adapted from the eponymous novel by Peter Cameron and was her last screenplay. Le Divorce which she co-wrote with Ivory was the last movie that featured the trio of Merchant, Ivory, and Jhabvala. In an interview for the British Film Institute, British actor James Wilby said that Jhabvala refused to write the screenplay of the 1987 film Maurice, despite being "the normal writer" for Merchant-Ivory films. The film was based on a posthumously published novel by E. M. Forster which depicted a gay relationship set in Edwardian England. Jhabvala did provide notes for Maurice, but said that she did not wish to write the screenplay as the novel was "sub-Forster and sub-Ivory." The Merchant-Ivory duo was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest collaboration between a director and a producer, but Jhabvala was a part of the trio from the very beginning. She introduced the composer Richard Robbins, who went on to score music for almost every production by Merchant Ivory beginning with The Europeans in 1979, to the duo after meeting him while he was the director of Mannes College of Music, New York. Madame Sousatzka (1988) was the one film she wrote that was not produced by Merchant Ivory.

• Year — Title — Other notes • 1963 — The Householder — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jhabvala • 1965 — Shakespeare Wallah — screenplay • 1969 — The Guru — screenplay • 1970 — Bombay Talkie — screenplay • 1975 — Autobiography of a Princess — written by • 1977 — Roseland — story and screenplay • 1978 — Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures — written by • 1979 — The Europeans — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James • 1980 — Jane Austen in Manhattan — written by, inserted libretto "Sir Charles Grandison" by Jane Austen • 1981 — Quartet — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jean Rhys • 1983 — Heat and Dust — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jhabvala • 1984 — The Bostonians — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James • 1985 — A Room with a View — screenplay, adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster • 1988 — Madame Sousatzka — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Bernice Rubens. Directed by John Schlesinger • 1990 — Mr. & Mrs. Bridge — screenplay, adapted from the novels by Evan S. Connell (Mr. Bridge & Mrs. Bridge) • 1992 — Howards End — screenplay, adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster • 1993 — The Remains of the Day — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro • 1995 — Jefferson in Paris — screenplay • 1996 — Surviving Picasso — screenplay • 1998 — A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Kaylie Jones • 2000 — The Golden Bowl — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James • 2003 — Le Divorce — co-written by James Ivory, adapted from the novel by Diane Johnson • 2009 — The City of Your Final Destination — screenplay, adapted from the novel by Peter Cameron

In 1951, Prawer married Cyrus Shavaksha Hormusji Jhabvala, an Indian Parsi architect and, later, head of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. The couple moved into a house in Delhi's Civil Lines where they raised three daughters: Ava, Firoza and Renana. In 1975, Jhabvala moved to New York and divided her time between India and the United States. In 1986, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Her elder brother, Siegbert Salomon Prawer (1925–2012), an expert on Heinrich Heine and horror films, was fellow of The Queen's College and Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Jhabvala died in her home in New York City on 3 April 2013 at the age of 85. James Ivory reported that her death was caused by complications from a pulmonary disorder. Reacting to her death, Merchant Ivory Productions said that Jhabvala had "been a beloved member of the Merchant Ivory family since 1960, comprising one-third of our indomitable trifecta that included director James Ivory and the late producer Ismail Merchant" and that her death was "a significant loss to the global film community".

• Year — Title — Other notes • 1955 — To whom she will: a novel — Published in the United States as Amrita • 1956 — The Nature of Passion • 1958 — Esmond in India • 1960 — The Householder • 1962 — Get Ready for Battle • 1965 — A Backward Place • 1972 — A New Dominion — published in the United States as Travelers • 1975 — Heat and Dust • 1983 — In Search of Love and Beauty • 1987 — Three Continents • 1993 — Poet and Dancer • 1995 — Shards of Memory

• Anthologies and encyclopedias * * * * • Screenwriting * * • Other * * * * * *

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is recorded with the occupation screenwriter. Established in Bibliothèque nationale de France under 11908835n. Established in Library of Congress under n50038610. Recorded as screenwriter, novelist and writer. Established in Open Library under OL5199A. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is established in Discogs under 5251322. Established in FAST under 1827115.

Her literary works were well received, with C. P. Snow, Rumer Godden and V. S. Pritchett describing her work as "the highest art", "a balance between subtlety, humour and beauty" and as being Chekhovian in its detached sense of comic self-delusion. Salman Rushdie described her as a "rootless intellectual" when he anthologized her in the Vintage Book of Indian Writing, and John Updike described her an "initiated outsider". Jhabvala initially was assumed to be an Indian among the reading public because of her perceptive portrayals of the nuances of Indian lifestyles. Later, the revelation of her true identity led to falling sales of her books in India and made her a target of accusations about "her old-fashioned colonial attitudes". Jhabvala's last published story was "The Judge's Will", which appeared in The New Yorker on 25 March 2013.

How Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was received and recognised. Jhabvala received Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay in 1993. Jhabvala received Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1998. Jhabvala received BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1983. Jhabvala received Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Jhabvala received MacArthur Fellows Program in 1984. Jhabvala received Writers Guild of America Award. Jhabvala received Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976. Jhabvala received O. Henry Award in 2005. Jhabvala received Booker Prize in 1975.

• Year — Title — Other notes • 1963 — Like Birds, Like Fishes • 1968 — A Stronger Climate • 1971 — An Experience of India • 1976 — How I Became a Holy Mother and other stories • 1986 — Out of India (novel) |Out of India: Selected Stories • 1998 — East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York and New Delhi • 2004 — My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past • 2008 — The Teacher — "The Teacher". The New Yorker. Volume:84. 28 July 2008 • 2011 — A Lovesong for India: Tales from East and West • 2013 — A Judge's Will — | • 2018 — At the End of the Century: The Stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Jhabvala was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List of the 1998 New Years Honours. She was granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.

• 1975: Booker Prize – Heat and Dust • 1976: Guggenheim Fellowship • 1979: Neil Gunn Prize • 1984: MacArthur Fellowship • 1984: London Critics Circle Film Awards – Screenwriter of the Year (Heat and Dust) • 1990: New York Film Critics Circle Awards – Best Screenplay (Mr. and Mrs. Bridge) • 2003: O. Henry Award (Refuge in London)