Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (; 7 May 19273 April 2013) was a British author 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 their ...
, made up of director
James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with screen ...
and producer
Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included Directo ...
. In 1951, Jhabvala 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 CBE in 1998 and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
and an
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
.


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. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
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) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
. The family was among the last group of refugees to flee the
Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
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 Mar ...
(1925–2012), an expert on
Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...
and horror films, was fellow of The Queen's College 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 Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...
in London, experienced
the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...
and began to speak English rather than German.
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' works and
Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...
's ''
Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''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 branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
''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, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. 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. It specialises in languages, offering lessons amongst others to its student ...
) and then
Queen Mary College , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...
, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951.


Literary career


Years in India

Ruth Prawer lived in India for 24 years from 1951. 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 a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory, and direction of James Ivory. It is based upon the 1960 novel of the same name by Jhabvala. ...
'' (1960) and ''Get Ready for Battle'' (1963). ''
The Householder ''The Householder'' (Hindi title: ''Gharbar'') is a 1963 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory, and direction of James Ivory. It is based upon the 1960 novel of the same name by Jhabvala. ...
'', 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 '' The 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 The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
for her novel ''
Heat and Dust ''Heat and Dust'' (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that won the Booker Prize in 1975. The book was also ranked by ''The Telegraph'' in 2014 as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. Plot summary The initial stages of the nove ...
'', later adapted into a movie. 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 us ...
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 FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014. Early life and education Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...
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 commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
. 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 Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English novelist and physical chemist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government.''The Columbia Encyclope ...
,
Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus'' in 1947 and '' The River'' in ...
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 Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
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 ...
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
James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with screen ...
and
Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included Directo ...
to write a screenplay for their debut ''
The Householder ''The Householder'' (Hindi title: ''Gharbar'') is a 1963 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory, and direction of James Ivory. It is based upon the 1960 novel of the same name by Jhabvala. ...
'', 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 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 their ...
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 film producer who is best known for his work in Hindi films. A recipient of several accolades, including four Nation ...
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 Pro ...
, met with critical praise and marked the beginning of a partnership that resulted in over 20 films. ''The Householder'' was followed by ''
Shakespeare Wallah ''Shakespeare Wallah'' is a 1965 Merchant Ivory Productions film. The story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amid ...
'' (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 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 Dame Peggy Ashcr ...
'' (1978), ''
The Europeans ''The Europeans: A sketch'' is a short novel by Henry James, published in 1878. It is essentially 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 ...
'' (1979), ''
Jane Austen in Manhattan ''Jane Austen in Manhattan'' is a 1980 American romance film, romantic drama film produced by Merchant Ivory Productions for London Weekend Television, LWT, but released for theatrical exhibition in UK and USA. It was the last film appearance of ...
'' (1980), ''
Quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
'' (1981), ''
The Courtesans of Bombay ''The Courtesans of Bombay'' is a 1983 British docudrama directed by Ismail Merchant. A collaboration by Merchant, James Ivory, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The film focuses on a Bombay compound known as Pavan Pool, where women aspiring to work in ...
'' (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 ''Heat and Dust'' (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that won the Booker Prize in 1975. The book was also ranked by ''The Telegraph'' in 2014 as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. Plot summary The initial stages of the nove ...
'' in 1983 won Jhabvala a
BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Adapted Screenplay has been presented to its winners since 1968, when the original category (BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay) was split into two awards, the other being the BAF ...
the following year. She won her first
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
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 a ...
'' (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 was ...
'' 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, musica ...
the following year for ''
The Remains of the Day ''The Remains of the Day'' is a 1989 novel by the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The protagonist, Stevens, is a butler with a long record of service at Darlington Hall, a stately home near Oxford, ...
''. Her other films with Merchant and Ivory include ''
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge ''Mr. & Mrs. Bridge'' is a 1990 American drama (film and television), drama film based on the novels by Evan S. Connell of the same name. It is directed by James Ivory, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and produced by Ismail Merchant. ...
'' (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 the ...
'' (1995), '' Surviving Picasso'' (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 int ...
'' (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 ...
'' (2009), adapted from the eponymous novel by Peter Cameron and was her last screenplay. ''
Le Divorce ''Le Divorce'' is a 2003 romantic comedy-drama film directed by James Ivory from a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Ivory, based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Diane Johnson. Plot Isabel Walker travels to Paris to visit her siste ...
'' 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 film-making 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 School, North Yorkshire and Sedbergh School in Cu ...
claimed that Jhabvala refused to write the screenplay of the 1987 film ''
Maurice Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...
'' 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, 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 short stor ...
, 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 reference book published annually, listing world ...
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 Bengali immigrant Sushila Sen (Shabana Azmi) l ...
'' (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


Honors

*1975:
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
– ''
Heat and Dust ''Heat and Dust'' (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that won the Booker Prize in 1975. The book was also ranked by ''The Telegraph'' in 2014 as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. Plot summary The initial stages of the nove ...
'' 1976: Guggenheim Fellowship *1979: Neil Gunn Prize *1984:
MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
*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 the ...
– Screenwriter of the Year for: ''
Heat and Dust ''Heat and Dust'' (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that won the Booker Prize in 1975. The book was also ranked by ''The Telegraph'' in 2014 as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. Plot summary The initial stages of the nove ...
'' *1990:
New York Film Critics Circle 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, magaz ...
- Best Screenplay: ''
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge ''Mr. & Mrs. Bridge'' is a 1990 American drama (film and television), drama film based on the novels by Evan S. Connell of the same name. It is directed by James Ivory, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and produced by Ismail Merchant. ...
'' *2003:
O. Henry Prize The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty bes ...
Winner for "Refuge in London"


Personal life

In 1951, Prawer married Cyrus Shavaksha Hormusji Jhabvala, an Indian
Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
architect and, later, head of the
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (SPA New Delhi) is a higher education federal institute located in New Delhi, India specializing in education and research, and serving as the national center of excellence, in the fields of plann ...
. The couple moved into a house in Delhi's
Civil Lines Civil Lines (archaically White Town) are the residential neighbourhoods developed during the British Raj for its senior civilian officers like Divisional commissioner and District magistrate. These townships were built all over the Indian subconti ...
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,
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 their ...
noted 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


Further reading

* * * * *


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer 1927 births 2013 deaths Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Booker Prize winners British screenwriters English emigrants to India English emigrants to the United States English Jewish writers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Jewish novelists MacArthur Fellows English women writers 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 German emigrants to India German emigrants to the United States German people of Polish-Jewish descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People with acquired American citizenship Writers from London Deaths from lung disease 20th-century American women writers 21st-century English women O. Henry Award winners