Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Details

Biography

Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany, emigrated to England, and earned a degree in English literature from London University.

Since 1955 she has written a dozen novels, many of them set in India, including The Nature of Passion, Esmond in India, Travelers, and The Householder, the last of which was her first motion picture project with Merchant Ivory Productions. Her first collaboration with director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant on an original project was for Shakespeare Wallah a film now widely regarded as a classic. Her original screenplays include Roseland. Jefferson in Paris set in Europe and America, and Surviving Picasso.

In 1975, Jhabvala won Britain's Booker Prize for her novel Heat And Dust. and in 1984 she won a BAFTA (British Film and Television Award) for Best Screenplay for the Merchant Ivory filmed adaptation of Heat and Dust. In 1986, she received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for A Room with a view and in 1990 she won the Best Screenplay Award from the New York Film Critics Circle for Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Jhabvala received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Howards End and was nominated for an Oscar for her adaptation ofKazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.

A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Jhabvala has also had three short story collections published, in addition to nine novels. In 1994 she received a MacArthur Foundation Award and in 1994, she received the Writers Guild of America's Screen Laurel Award, which is the Guild's highest honor.

Events

  • 7th May 1927 - Birth