Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (born May 7, 1927) is a novelist, short story writer, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is perhaps best known for her long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, notably director James Ivory and the late producer Ismail Merchant. Their films won six Academy Awards.
Background
She was born Ruth Prawer in Cologne, Germany to Marcus (who was Polish-Jewish) and Eleanora Prawer (who was German-Jewish); her father worked in Germany's largest synagogue in Cologne. The family fled the Nazis in 1939, emigrating to Britain.During World War II she lived in Hendon in London, experienced the Blitz and began to speak English rather than German. She became a British citizen in 1948. She received her M.A. in English literature at the University of London in 1951. She also married Cyrus H. Jhabvala, an (Indian) Parsi architect, in 1951.
The couple moved to New Delhi, India, in 1951 and they had three daughters: Ava, Feroza and Renana. The three daughters had six children who live all around the world, three are living in America, one in India and two in England. Jhabvala began to write novels about her new life there: To Whom She Will (1955), Nature of Passion (1956), Esmond in India (1957), The Householder (1960) and Get Ready for the Battle (1962).
In 1975 Jhabvala moved to New York and divided her time between India and the United States. She eventually became a U.S. citizen.
In 1963, she was approached by filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to write a screenplay of her 1960 novel The Householder. The film, The Householder was released by Merchant Ivory Productions in 1963 — this began a partnership that would produce over 20 films.
The next Merchant-Ivory project Shakespeare Wallah (1965), was a critical success, and it was followed by a number of other films including an adaptation of her novel Heat and Dust, (1983), A Room with a View (1985), Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993).
Of this collaboration, Ismail Merchant once commented: "IT IS a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory...I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!" [link].
Unfortunitely, Ismail Merchant passed away due to a stomach ulcer, to the despair of James, Ruth, Cyrus and everyone who loved him. They were destrought because Ismail was the youngest of the four and they believed that he would be the one who would look after them if they fell ill.
Other works
Jhabvala also continued to write novels as well as screenplays: Like Birds, Like Fishes (1963), A Backward Place (1966), A Stronger Climate (1968), An Experience of India (1972), A New Dominion (1972, USA: Travelers).Awards
Winner:- 2003: O. Henry Prize Winner for "Refuge in London"
- 1994: Writers Guild of America's Screen Laurel Award
- 1992: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Howards End
- 1987: Writers Guild of America - Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for: A Room with a View
- 1986: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - A Room with a View.
- 1984: British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) - Best Screenplay - Adapted for: Heat and Dust
- 1984: London Critics Circle Film Awards - Screenwriter of the Year for: Heat and Dust
- 1984: MacArthur Foundation Award
- 1975: Booker Prize - Heat and Dust (novel)
References
Anthologies and Encyclopedias:- Bausch, Richard and R. V. Cassill (ed.). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala." Norton Anthology of Short Fiction: 6th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000: 801-813.
- Mishra, Pankaj (ed.). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala." India in Mind: An Anthology. New York: Vintage Books, 2005: 108-130.
- Ross, Robert (ed.). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala." Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction in English: An Anthology. New York: Garland, 1999: 189-209.
- Serafin, Steven (ed.). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala." Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, 3rd edition. Farmington Hills, Michigan: St. James Press, 1999.
- Bailur, Jayanti. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: Fiction and Film. New Delhi: Arnold Publishers, 1992.
- Katz, Susan Bullington (ed.). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala." Conversations with Screenwriters. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000: 1-8.
- Crane, Ralph J. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. New York: Twayne, 1992.
- --. Passages to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1991.
- Rai, Sudha. Homeless by Choice: Naipaul, Jhabvala, Rushdie and India. Jaipur: Printwell, 1992.
- Shepherd, Ronald. Ruth Prawer Jhabwala in India: The Jewish Connection. Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1994.
- Sucher, Lawrie. The Fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: The Politics of Passion. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989.
Selected works
Novels and Short Stories
- To Whom She Will (1955; published in the United States as Amrita)
- The Nature of Passion (1956).
- Esmond in India (1958)
- The Householder (1960),
- Get Ready for Battle (1962)
- Like Birds, Like Fishes (1963)
- A Backward Place (1965)
- A Stronger Climate (1968)
- A New Dominion (1972; published in the United States as Travelers)
- Heat and Dust (1975)
- An Experience of India (1971)
- ''How I Became a Holy Mother and other stories" (1976),
- In Search of Love and Beauty (1983)
- Out of India (1986)
- Three Continents (1987)
- Poet and Dancer (1993)
- Shards of Memory (1995)
- East Into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York and New Delhi (1998)
Select screenplays
| Year | Title | Other notes |
| 2003 | Le Divorce | co-written by James Ivory, adapted from the novel by Diane Johnson |
| 2000 | The Golden Bowl | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James |
| 1998 | A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Kaylie Jones |
| 1996 | Surviving Picasso | screenplay |
| 1995 | Jefferson in Paris | written by |
| 1993 | The Remains of the Day | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro |
| 1992 | Howards End | screenplay, adapted from the novel by E. M. Forster |
| 1990 | Mr. and Mrs. Bridge | screenplay, adapted from the novels by Evan S. Connell ("Mr. Bridge" & "Mrs. Bridge") |
| 1988 | Madame Sousatzka | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Bernice Rubens. Directed by John Schlesinger |
| 1985 | A Room with a View | screenplay, adapted from the novel by E. M. Forster |
| 1984 | The Bostonians | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James |
| 1983 | Heat and Dust | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jhabvala |
| 1981 | Quartet | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jean Rhys |
| 1980 | Jane Austen in Manhattan | written by, inserted libretto "Sir Charles Grandison" by Jane Austen |
| 1979 | The Europeans | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Henry James |
| 1978 | Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures | written by |
| 1977 | Roseland | story and screenplay |
| 1975 | Autobiography of a Princess | written by |
| 1972 | Bombay Talkie | screenplay |
| 1969 | The Guru | screenplay |
| 1965 | Shakespeare Wallah | screenplay |
| 1963 | The Householder | screenplay, adapted from the novel by Jhabvala |
External links
Biographies:- [SAWNET biography]
- [Biography from Merchant Ivory Productions]
- [Biography]
- [Biography from the Literary Encyclopedia]
- [Recent short story "Innocence" on The New Yorker magazine website]
- [An interview] on writing film adaptations.
- [1993 audio interview of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio]
- [Rewriting Literature: A Conversation With Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, by Phillip Williams]
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