Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (; 7 May 19273 April 2013) was a British and American novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with

Merchant Ivory Productions Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) and director James Ivory (b. 1928). Merchant and Ivory were life and business partners from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During the ...

, made up of film director

James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born Richard Jerome Hazen June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was a principal in Merchant Ivory Productions along with Indian film producer Ismail Merchant (his domestic and professio ...

and producer

Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman; 25 December 1936 – 24 May 2005) was an Indian film producer. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included film director (and Merchant's longt ...

. In 1951, she married Indian architect Cyrus Jhabvala and moved to New Delhi. She began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List of the 1998 New Years Honours and granted a joint fellowship by

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

and an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

Early life

Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus and Eleanora (Cohn) Prawer. Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanora's father was

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

of Cologne's largest synagogue. Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and released, and she witnessed the violence unleashed against the Jews during the

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

. The family was among the last group of refugees to flee the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

in 1939, emigrating to Britain. Her elder brother,

Siegbert Salomon Prawer Siegbert Salomon Prawer (15 February 1925 – 5 April 2012) was Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Life and works Prawer was born on 15 February 1925 in Cologne, Germany, to Jewish parents Marcu ...

(1925–2012), an expert on

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

and horror films, was fellow of

The Queen's College The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

and Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Prawer lived in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

in London, experienced

the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

and began to speak English rather than German.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' works and

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel ''Gone With the Wind (novel), Gone ...

's ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

'' kept her company through the war years, and she read the latter book while taking refuge in air raid shelters during the ''

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

''s 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 The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Prawer attended Hendon County School (now

Hendon School Hendon School is a mixed secondary school in Golders Rise, Hendon, with academy status since November 2011 (previously a comprehensive) in the London Borough of Barnet. Overview Hendon School is a mixed comprehensive school with 1,253 pupils ...

) and then

Queen Mary College Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951.

Literary career

Years in India

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 ''The Householder'' (Hindi title: ''Gharbar'') is a 1963 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with direction by James Ivory (in his feature directorial debut) and a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory, and direction of James Ivor ...

'' (1960) and ''Get Ready for Battle'' (1963). ''

'', 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 ''Autobiography of a Princess'' is a 1975 film directed by James Ivory and starring James Mason and Madhur Jaffrey. It was written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and produced by Ismail Merchant. Plot An Indian princess ( Madhur Jaffrey), long-di ...

'' (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

for her novel '' Heat and Dust'', later adapted into a

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

. 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 Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaker may be ...

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 Pankaj Mishra (born 9 February 1969) is an Indian essayist, novelist, and socialist. His non-fiction works include ''Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond'', along with ''From the Ruins of Empire: The I ...

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."

Life in the United States

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 The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

. 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".

Reception

Her literary works were well received, with C. P. Snow,

Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was a British author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus (novel), Black Narcissus'' in 194 ...

and

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. Among his most noteworthy w ...

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 Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

described her as a "rootless intellectual" when he anthologized her in the ''Vintage Book of Indian Writing'', and

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

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.

Merchant Ivory Productions

In 1963, Jhabvala was approached by

and

to write a screenplay for their debut ''

'', 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

in 1963 and starring

Shashi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor (pronounced �əʃi kəpuːɾ born Balbir Raj Kapoor; 18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017) was an Indian actor and producer known primarily for his work in Hindi films. He is considered as one of the greatest and most successful acto ...

and

Leela Naidu Leela Naidu (1940 – 28 July 2009) was an Indian actress who starred in a small number of Hindi and English films, including '' Yeh Raste Hain Pyar Ke'' (1963), based on the real-life Nanavati case, and ''The Householder'', Merchant Ivory Pr ...

, 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 ''Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures'' is a 1978 television film by Merchant Ivory Productions (written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant) set in India, starring UK stage actress D ...

'' (1978), ''

The Europeans ''The Europeans: A sketch'' is a short novel by Henry James, published in 1878. It is a comedy contrasting the behaviour and attitudes of two visitors from Europe with those of their relatives living in the "new" world of New England. The nov ...

'' (1979), '' Jane Austen in Manhattan'' (1980), ''

Quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

'' (1981), '' The Courtesans of Bombay'' (1983) and ''

The Bostonians ''The Bostonians'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Century Magazine'' in 1885–1886 and then as a book in 1886. This bittersweet tragicomedy centres on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political c ...

'' (1984). The Merchant Ivory production of '' Heat and Dust'' in 1983 won Jhabvala a

BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is a film award presented annually at the British Academy Film Awards to a screenwriter for a specific film. It is awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a British organisat ...

the following year. She won her first

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for her screenplay for ''

A Room with a View ''A Room with a View'' is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian-era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society ...

'' (1986) and won a second in the same category for ''

Howards End ''Howards End'' is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. ''Howards End'' is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book wa ...

'' six years later. She was nominated for a third

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, mus ...

the following year for '' The Remains of the Day''. Her other films with Merchant and Ivory include '' Mr. & Mrs. Bridge'' (1990), ''

Jefferson in Paris ''Jefferson in Paris'' is a 1995 historical drama film, directed by James Ivory, and previously entitled ''Head and Heart''. The screenplay, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is a semi-fictional account of Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador of ...

'' (1995), ''

Surviving Picasso ''Surviving Picasso'' is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It was produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenp ...

'' (1996), '' A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries'' (1998) (the screenplay for which she co-authored with Ivory), ''

The Golden Bowl ''The Golden Bowl'' is a 1904 novel by Henry James. Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James's career. ''The Golden Bowl'' explores the tangle of in ...

'' (2000) and ''

The City of Your Final Destination ''The City of Your Final Destination'' is a 2009 American romantic drama film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Metwally, Hiroyuki Sanada and Norma Aleandro. It was written by Ruth Pra ...

'' (2009), adapted from the eponymous novel by

Peter Cameron Peter Cameron may refer to: * Peter Cameron (entomologist) (1847–1912), English entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera * Peter Cameron (mathematician) (born 1947), Australian mathematician, joint winner of the 2003 Euler Medal * Peter Camero ...

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 a
interview
for the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

, British actor

James Wilby James Jonathon Wilby (born 20 February 1958) is an English actor. Early life and education Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Terrington Hall and Sedbergh School, studied for a degree in M ...

claimed that Jhabvala refused to write the screenplay of the 1987 film '' Maurice'' despite being "the normal writer" for Merchant-Ivory films. Wilby surmised that Jhabvala may have been uncomfortable with the central subject matter of the film, based on a posthumously published novel by

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

, which depicted a gay relationship set in Edwardian England. Ivory was reportedly "quite upset" by Jhabvala's decision, given the fact that their friendship was "incredibly close." For her own part, Jhabvala apparently did provide notes for ''Maurice'', but claimed she didn't 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 ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

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 ''Madame Sousatzka'' is a 1988 drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the 1962 novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens. __TOC__ Plot Indian immigrant Sushila Sen (Shabana Azmi) ...

'' (1988) was the one film she wrote that was not produced by Merchant-Ivory.

Selected filmography

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards Golden Globe Awards British Academy Film Awards Writers Guild of America Awards

Other awards

*1975:

– '' Heat and Dust'' *1976:

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

*1979: Neil Gunn Prize *1984:

*1984:

London Critics Circle Film Awards The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally. The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of th ...

– Screenwriter of the Year ('' Heat and Dust'') *1990:

New York Film Critics Circle Awards The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York–based daily and weekly newspapers, ma ...

–

Best Screenplay This list of screenwriting awards for film is an index to articles on notable awards given for film screenwriting. The list is organized by region and country of the awards venue or sponsor, but winners are not necessarily restricted to people fro ...

('' Mr. and Mrs. Bridge'') *2003: O. Henry Award (''Refuge in London'')

Personal life

In 1951, Prawer married Cyrus Shavaksha Hormusji Jhabvala, an Indian

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

architect and, later, head of the

School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi School of Planning and Architecture Delhi (SPA Delhi) is a higher education federal institute located in Delhi, India specialising in education and research, and serving as the national centre of excellence, in the fields of planning and archi ...

. The couple moved into a house in Delhi's

Civil Lines Civil Lines, historically known as White Town, were residential neighborhoods developed during the British Raj for senior civilian officers, such as the Divisional Commissioner and District Magistrate. These townships were established across the In ...

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.

Death

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 Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract.

. Reacting to her death,

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".

Literary works

Novels and novellas

Short stories and collections

Critical studies and reviews of Jhabvala's work

;Anthologies and encyclopedias * * * * ;Screenwriting * * ;Other * * * Online version is titled "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and the art of ambivalence". * * *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer 1927 births 2013 deaths Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Booker Prize winners British women screenwriters English emigrants to India English emigrants to the United States Jewish English writers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Jewish novelists MacArthur Fellows English people of Polish-Jewish descent American short story writers American women screenwriters Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Writers Guild of America Award winners Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century American women writers The New Yorker people American emigrants to India Immigrants to the United States German people of Polish-Jewish descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Naturalized citizens of the United States Writers from the London Borough of Barnet Deaths from lung disease 20th-century American women writers 21st-century English women O. Henry Award winners People from Hendon British emigrants to India