Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

British-American writer (1927–2013)

"Jhabvala" redirects here. For the Indian social worker, see Renana Jhabvala.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

CBE

Jhabvala in 1987

Born| Ruth Prawer
(1927-05-07)7 May 1927
Cologne, Weimar Republic
Died| 3 April 2013(2013-04-03) (aged 85)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation|

* Novelist
* screenwriter

Citizenship|

* United Kingdom (1948–2013)
* United States (1986–2013)

Alma mater| Queen Mary University of London
Period| 1955–2013
Notable awards|

* Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1986 A Room with a View
1992 Howards End
* BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1983 Heat and Dust
* Booker Prize
1975 Heat and Dust
* MacArthur Fellowship
1984
* Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1986 A Room with a View

Spouse|

Cyrus Jhabvala

(m. 1951)​

Children| 3, including Renana
Relatives| Siegbert Salomon Prawer (brother)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala CBE (née Prawer; 7 May 1927[1] - 3 April 2013) was a British and American novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of film director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.[2]

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 (CBE) in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List of the 1998 New Years Honours and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant.[1][3] She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.[4]

## Early life

[edit]

Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus and Eleanora (Cohn) Prawer.[5] Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanora's father was cantor of Cologne's largest synagogue.[6][7] Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and released, and she witnessed the violence unleashed against the Jews during the Kristallnacht.[6] The family was among the last group of refugees to flee the Nazi regime in 1939, emigrating to Britain.[7] 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.[7]

During World War II, Prawer lived in Hendon in London, experienced the Blitz and began to speak English rather than German. Charles Dickens' works and Margaret Mitchell's 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's bombing of London.[8] 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.[7] Prawer attended Hendon County School (now Hendon School) and then Queen Mary College, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951.[7]

## Literary career

[edit]

### Years in India

[edit]

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).[9]

In 1975, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust, later adapted into a film.[10] That year, she moved to New York where she wrote The Place of Peace.[9] Her husband also moved to US permanently in late 1980s, and the couple lived on the east coast until Ruth's death in 2013.[11] 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."[12][13] 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."[12]

### Life in the United States

[edit]

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.[12] The New York Times Review of Books chose her Out of India (1986) as one of the best reads for that year.[8] In 1984, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.[14]

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".[6]

### Reception

[edit]

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".[6]

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".[4]

Jhabvala's last published story was "The Judge's Will", which appeared in The New Yorker on 25 March 2013.[15]

## Merchant Ivory Productions

[edit]

Main article: Merchant Ivory Productions

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.[16]

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.[9]

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.[10] She was nominated for a third Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay the following year for The Remains of the Day.[4]

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.[9] Le Divorce which she co-wrote with Ivory was the last movie that featured the trio of Merchant, Ivory and Jhabvala.[17]

In an interview for the British Film Institute, British actor James Wilby 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, 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."[18] For her own part, Jhabvala apparently did provide notes for Maurice,[19] but claimed she didn't wish to write the screenplay, as the novel was "sub-Forster and sub-Ivory."[20]

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.[21] Madame Sousatzka (1988) was the one film she wrote that was not produced by Merchant-Ivory.

## Selected filmography

[edit]

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

## Awards and nominations

[edit]

Academy Awards

Year  | Category  | Film  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

1986 | Best Adapted Screenplay | A Room with a View | Won  | [22]
1992 | Howards End | Won
1993 | The Remains of the Day | Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

Year  | Category  | Film  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

1992 | Best Screenplay | Howards End | Nominated  | [22]
1993 | The Remains of the Day | Nominated

British Academy Film Awards

Year  | Category  | Film  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

1983 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Heat and Dust | Won  | [22]
1986 | A Room with a View | Nominated
1992 | Howards End | Nominated
1993 | The Remains of the Day | Nominated

Writers Guild of America Awards

Year  | Category  | Film  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

1986 | Best Adapted Screenplay | A Room with a View | Won | [23]
1992 | Howards End | Nominated
1993 | The Remains of the Day | Nominated
Screen Laurel Award | — | Won

### Other awards

[edit]

* 1975: Booker Prize – Heat and Dust[23]
* 1976: Guggenheim Fellowship
* 1979: Neil Gunn Prize[24]
* 1984: MacArthur Fellowship[23]
* 1984: London Critics Circle Film Awards – Screenwriter of the Year (Heat and Dust)[24]
* 1990: New York Film Critics Circle Awards – Best Screenplay (Mr. and Mrs. Bridge)[23]
* 2003: O. Henry Award (Refuge in London)[24]

## Personal life

[edit]

In 1951, Prawer married Cyrus Shavaksha Hormusji Jhabvala,[25] an Indian Parsi architect and, later, head of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.[16][1] The couple moved into a house in Delhi's Civil Lines where they raised three daughters: Ava, Firoza and Renana.[16][1] 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.[9]

### Death

[edit]

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.[26][27][28] 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".[29]

## Literary works

[edit]

### Novels and novellas

[edit]

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 |

### Short stories and collections

[edit]

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: 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 | "The judge's will". The New Yorker. Vol. 89, no. 6\. 25 March 2013. pp. 88–95.
2018 | At the End of the Century: The Stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala |

### Critical studies and reviews of Jhabvala's work

[edit]

Anthologies and encyclopedias

* Prawer Jhabvala, Ruth (2000). "Passion". In Bausch, Richard; Cassill, R. V. (eds.). Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (6th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 801–813. ISBN 978-0-39397-508-6.
* Prawer Jhabvala, Ruth (2005). "Two more under the Indian sun". In Mishra, Pankaj (ed.). India in Mind: An Anthology. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 108–130. ISBN 978-0-37572-745-0.
* Prawer Jhabvala, Ruth (1999). "An experience of India". In Ross, Robert (ed.). Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction in English: An Anthology. New York: Garland. pp. 189–209. ISBN 978-0-81531-431-8.
* Serafin, Steven, ed. (1999). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. Vol. 4 (L-Z) (3rd ed.). Farmington Hills, Michigan: St. James Press. ISBN 978-1-55862-377-4.

Screenwriting

* Bailur, Jayanti (1992). Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: Fiction and Film. New Delhi: Arnold Publishers.
* Katz, Susan Bullington, ed. (2000). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". Conversations with Screenwriters. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-0-32500-295-8.

Other

* Crane, Ralph J. (1992). Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. New York: Twayne. ISBN 978-0-80577-030-8.
* Crane, Ralph J. (1991). Passages to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. ISBN 978-8-12071-355-0.
* Jasanoff, Maya (7 January 2019). "A passage from India : Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and the art of ambivalence". The Critics. A Critic at Large. The New Yorker. Vol. 94, no. 43\. pp. 62–67.[30]
* Rai, Sudha (1992). Homeless by Choice: Naipaul, Jhabvala, Rushdie and India. Jaipur: Printwell. ISBN 978-8-17044-241-7.
* Shepherd, Ronald (1994). Ruth Prawer Jhabvala in India: The Jewish Connection. Delhi: Chanakya Publications. ISBN 978-8-17001-096-8.
* Sucher, Laurie (1989). The Fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: The Politics of Passion. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-33342-196-3.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Watts, Janet (3 April 2013). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
2. ^ Kaur, Harmanpreet. "The Wandering Company: Merchant-Ivory Productions and Post-Colonial Cinema" Archived 10 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Projectorhead Film Magazine, 10 January 2013.
3. ^ "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013)". Outlook. 3 April 2013. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
4. ^ a b c Childs, Martin (4 April 2013). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: Author and screenwriter who won two Oscars and the Booker Prize". The Independent. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
5. ^ Merchant, Ismail (9 April 2012). Merchant-Ivory: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 94\. ISBN 978-1-61703-237-0. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
6. ^ a b c d Jaggi, Maya (19 March 2005). "Brave new worlds". The Guardian.
7. ^ a b c d e "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". The Daily Telegraph. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
8. ^ a b Liukkonen, Petri. "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". Books and Writers. Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 9 February 2007.
9. ^ a b c d e Raw, Laurence (2012). Merchant-Ivory: Interviews. University of Mississippi. pp. xix–xxii. ISBN 978-1-61703-237-0.
10. ^ a b "Novelist, Oscar winner Ruth Prawer Jhabvala dies". Mint. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
11. ^ "Cyrus Jhabvala".
12. ^ a b c "Passages to India". The New York Times. 18 July 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
13. ^ "Between The Lines: Love and loathing in India". Mint. 5 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
14. ^ "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
15. ^ Rothman, Joshua (3 April 2013). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's stories". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
16. ^ a b c "She came, she saw, she wrote". The Hindu. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
17. ^ "In Remembrance: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". Lambda Literary. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
18. ^ Hugh Grant and James Wilby on Maurice, Merchant Ivory's gay love story | BFI Flare, 4 April 2018, retrieved 27 April 2020
19. ^ "Interview: James Ivory on Restoring "Maurice"". The Moveable Fest. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
20. ^ Larson, Sarah. "James Ivory and the Making of a Historic Gay Love Story". The New Yorker. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
21. ^ "Richard Robbins obituary". The Guardian. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
22. ^ a b c "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". IMDb.
23. ^ a b c d "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". Merchant Ivory Productions. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
24. ^ a b c "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". British Council. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
25. ^ Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects vol. 29 and 30, ed. S. Kumar, 1963, p. 41
26. ^ Schudel, Matt (3 April 2013). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novelist and screenwriter, dies at 85". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
27. ^ Gates, Anita (3 April 2013). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Screenwriter, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
28. ^ "Oscar-winning screenwriter of 'Howards End' and 'A Room With a View' dies". Entertainment Weekly. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
29. ^ "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Dead: Oscar-Winning Screenwriter And Novelist Dies at 85". Huffington Post. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.[permanent dead link]
30. ^ Online version is titled "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and the art of ambivalence".

## Further reading

[edit]

* Prawer Jhabvala, Ruth (26 June 2006). "Innocence". The New Yorker.
* Horne, Philip. "'It works diagonally': A Conversation with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala on The Golden Bowl and the Art of Adaptation". Merchant Ivory. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
* Williams, Phillip. "Rewriting Literature: A Conversation With Ruth Prawer Jhabvala". MovieMaker. Archived from the original on 3 August 2001.
* "Desert Island Discs". BBC Radio 4. 24 January 1999.
* Freeman, Catherine (September 2023). "Ruth Prawer Jhabvala CBE remembered". The Royal Society of Literature.

## External links

[edit]

* Quotations related to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala at Wikiquote
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala at IMDb
* Portraits of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Awards for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

* v
* t
* e

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

1928–1950|

* Benjamin Glazer (1928)
* Hanns Kräly (1929)
* Frances Marion (1930)
* Howard Estabrook (1931)
* Edwin J. Burke (1932)
* Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason (1933)
* Robert Riskin (1934)
* Dudley Nichols (1935)
* Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (1936)
* Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and Norman Reilly Raine (1937)
* Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Arthur Lewis, W. P. Lipscomb, and George Bernard Shaw (1938)
* Sidney Howard (1939)
* Donald Ogden Stewart (1940)
* Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller (1941)
* George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, and Arthur Wimperis (1942)
* Philip G. Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, and Howard Koch (1943)
* Frank Butler and Frank Cavett (1944)
* Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder (1945)
* Robert Sherwood (1946)
* George Seaton (1947)
* John Huston (1948)
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949)
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)

1951–1975|

* Harry Brown and Michael Wilson (1951)
* Charles Schnee (1952)
* Daniel Taradash (1953)
* George Seaton (1954)
* Paddy Chayefsky (1955)
* John Farrow, S. J. Perelman, and James Poe (1956)
* Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (1957)
* Alan Jay Lerner (1958)
* Neil Paterson (1959)
* Richard Brooks (1960)
* Abby Mann (1961)
* Horton Foote (1962)
* John Osborne (1963)
* Edward Anhalt (1964)
* Robert Bolt (1965)
* Robert Bolt (1966)
* Stirling Silliphant (1967)
* James Goldman (1968)
* Waldo Salt (1969)
* Ring Lardner Jr. (1970)
* Ernest Tidyman (1971)
* Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo (1972)
* William Peter Blatty (1973)
* Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo (1974)
* Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben (1975)

1976–2000|

* William Goldman (1976)
* Alvin Sargent (1977)
* Oliver Stone (1978)
* Robert Benton (1979)
* Alvin Sargent (1980)
* Ernest Thompson (1981)
* Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart (1982)
* James L. Brooks (1983)
* Peter Shaffer (1984)
* Kurt Luedtke (1985)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1986)
* Bernardo Bertolucci and Mark Peploe (1987)
* Christopher Hampton (1988)
* Alfred Uhry (1989)
* Michael Blake (1990)
* Ted Tally (1991)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1992)
* Steven Zaillian (1993)
* Eric Roth (1994)
* Emma Thompson (1995)
* Billy Bob Thornton (1996)
* Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (1997)
* Bill Condon (1998)
* John Irving (1999)
* Stephen Gaghan (2000)

2001–present|

* Akiva Goldsman (2001)
* Ronald Harwood (2002)
* Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh (2003)
* Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (2004)
* Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (2005)
* William Monahan (2006)
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (2007)
* Simon Beaufoy (2008)
* Geoffrey S. Fletcher (2009)
* Aaron Sorkin (2010)
* Alexander Payne, Jim Rash, and Nat Faxon (2011)
* Chris Terrio (2012)
* John Ridley (2013)
* Graham Moore (2014)
* Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (2015)
* Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (2016)
* James Ivory (2017)
* Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee (2018)
* Taika Waititi (2019)
* Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller (2020)
* Sian Heder (2021)
* Sarah Polley (2022)
* Cord Jefferson (2023)

* v
* t
* e

BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

1983–2000|

* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1983)
* Bruce Robinson (1984)
* Richard Condon and Janet Roach (1985)
* Kurt Luedtke (1986)
* Claude Berri and Gérard Brach (1987)
* Jean-Claude Carrière and Philip Kaufman (1988)
* Christopher Hampton (1989)
* Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese (1990)
* Dick Clement, Roddy Doyle and Ian La Frenais (1991)
* Michael Tolkin (1992)
* Steven Zaillian (1993)
* Paul Attanasio (1994)
* John Hodge (1995)
* Anthony Minghella (1996)
* Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce (1997)
* Elaine May (1998)
* Neil Jordan (1999)
* Stephen Gaghan (2000)

2001–present|

* Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Roger S. H. Schulman and Joe Stillman (2001)
* Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman (2002)
* Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (2003)
* Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (2004)
* Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (2005)
* Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan (2006)
* Ronald Harwood (2007)
* Simon Beaufoy (2008)
* Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (2009)
* Aaron Sorkin (2010)
* Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan (2011)
* David O. Russell (2012)
* Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (2013)
* Anthony McCarten (2014)
* Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (2015)
* Luke Davies (2016)
* James Ivory (2017)
* Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott (2018)
* Taika Waititi (2019)
* Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller (2020)
* Sian Heder (2021)
* Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell (2022)
* Cord Jefferson (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Recipients of the Booker Prize

* List of winners and nominated authors
* The Best of the Booker
* The Golden Man Booker
* International Booker Prize

1969–79|

* 1969: P. H. Newby (Something to Answer For)
* 1970: Bernice Rubens (The Elected Member)
* 1970 Lost Prize: J. G. Farrell (Troubles)
* 1971: V. S. Naipaul (In a Free State)
* 1972: John Berger (G.)
* 1973: J. G. Farrell (The Siege of Krishnapur)
* 1974: Nadine Gordimer (The Conservationist) and Stanley Middleton (Holiday)
* 1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Heat and Dust)
* 1976: David Storey (Saville)
* 1977: Paul Scott (Staying On)
* 1978: Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea)
* 1979: Penelope Fitzgerald (Offshore)

1980s|

* 1980: William Golding (Rites of Passage)
* 1981: Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children)
* 1982: Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark)
* 1983: J. M. Coetzee (Life & Times of Michael K)
* 1984: Anita Brookner (Hotel du Lac)
* 1985: Keri Hulme (The Bone People)
* 1986: Kingsley Amis (The Old Devils)
* 1987: Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger)
* 1988: Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda)
* 1989: Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day)

1990s|

* 1990: A. S. Byatt (Possession)
* 1991: Ben Okri (The Famished Road)
* 1992: Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Barry Unsworth (Sacred Hunger)
* 1993: Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha)
* 1994: James Kelman (How Late It Was, How Late)
* 1995: Pat Barker (The Ghost Road)
* 1996: Graham Swift (Last Orders)
* 1997: Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)
* 1998: Ian McEwan (Amsterdam)
* 1999: J. M. Coetzee (Disgrace)

2000s|

* 2000: Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)
* 2001: Peter Carey (True History of the Kelly Gang)
* 2002: Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
* 2003: DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little)
* 2004: Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty)
* 2005: John Banville (The Sea)
* 2006: Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss)
* 2007: Anne Enright (The Gathering)
* 2008: Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
* 2009: Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall)

2010s|

* 2010: Howard Jacobson (The Finkler Question)
* 2011: Julian Barnes (The Sense of an Ending)
* 2012: Hilary Mantel (Bring Up the Bodies)
* 2013: Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries)
* 2014: Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
* 2015: Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings)
* 2016: Paul Beatty (The Sellout)
* 2017: George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo)
* 2018: Anna Burns (Milkman)
* 2019: Margaret Atwood (The Testaments) and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other)

2020s|

* 2020: Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain)
* 2021: Damon Galgut (The Promise)
* 2022: Shehan Karunatilaka (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida)
* 2023: Paul Lynch (Prophet Song)
* 2024: Samantha Harvey (Orbital)

* v
* t
* e

London Film Critics' Circle Award for Screenwriter of the Year

* Steve Tesich (1980)
* Colin Welland (1981)
* Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart (1982)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1983)
* Philip Kaufman (1984)
* Alan Bennett (1985)
* Woody Allen (1986)
* Alan Bennett (1987)
* David Mamet (1988)
* Christopher Hampton (1989)
* Woody Allen (1990)
* David Mamet (1991)
* Michael Tolkin (1992)
* Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin (1993)
* Quentin Tarantino (1994)
* Paul Attanasio (1995)
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (1996)
* Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (1997)
* Andrew Niccol (1998)
* Alan Ball (1999)
* Charlie Kaufman (2000)
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (2001)
* Andrew Bovell (2002)
* John Collee and Peter Weir (2003)
* Charlie Kaufman (2004)
* Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco (2005)
* Peter Morgan (2006)
* Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (2007)
* Simon Beaufoy (2008)
* Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, and Tony Roche (2009)
* Aaron Sorkin (2010)
* Asghar Farhadi (2011)
* Michael Haneke (2012)
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (2013)
* Wes Anderson (2014)
* Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (2015)
* Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
* Martin McDonagh (2017)
* Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (2018)
* Noah Baumbach (2019)
* Chloé Zhao (2020)
* Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (2021)
* Martin McDonagh (2022)
* Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (2023)

* v
* t
* e

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay

1956–1975|

* James Poe, John Farrow and S. J. Perelman (1956)
* No Award (1957)
* Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith (1958)
* Wendell Mayes (1959)
* I. A. L. Diamond and Billy Wilder (1960)
* Abby Mann (1961)
* No Award (1962)
* Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. (1963)
* Harold Pinter (1964)
* No Award (1965)
* Robert Bolt (1966)
* David Newman and Robert Benton (1967)
* Lorenzo Semple Jr. (1968)
* Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker (1969)
* Éric Rohmer (1970)
* Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich / Penelope Gilliatt (1971)
* Ingmar Bergman (1972)
* George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (1973)
* Ingmar Bergman (1974)
* François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman and Jean Gruault (1975)

1976–2000|

* Paddy Chayefsky (1976)
* Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (1977)
* Paul Mazursky (1978)
* Steve Tesich (1979)
* Bo Goldman (1980)
* John Guare (1981)
* Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal (1982)
* Bill Forsyth (1983)
* Robert Benton (1984)
* Woody Allen (1985)
* Hanif Kureishi (1986)
* James L. Brooks (1987)
* Ron Shelton (1988)
* Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost (1989)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1990)
* David Cronenberg (1991)
* Neil Jordan (1992)
* Jane Campion (1993)
* Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary (1994)
* Emma Thompson (1995)
* Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson (1996)
* Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (1997)
* Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (1998)
* Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (1999)
* Kenneth Lonergan (2000)

2001–present|

* Julian Fellowes (2001)
* Charlie and Donald Kaufman (2002)
* Craig Lucas (2003)
* Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (2004)
* Noah Baumbach (2005)
* Peter Morgan (2006)
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (2007)
* Jenny Lumet (2008)
* Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche (2009)
* Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko (2010)
* Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin (2011)
* Tony Kushner (2012)
* Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell (2013)
* Wes Anderson (2014)
* Phyllis Nagy (2015)
* Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
* Paul Thomas Anderson (2017)
* Paul Schrader (2018)
* Quentin Tarantino (2019)
* Eliza Hittman (2020)
* Paul Thomas Anderson (2021)
* Martin McDonagh (2022)
* Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

Adapted Drama
(1969–1983)|

* Waldo Salt (1969)
* Robert Anderson (1970)
* Ernest Tidyman (1971)
* Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo (1972)
* Waldo Salt & Norman Wexler (1973)
* Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo (1974)
* Bo Goldman & Lawrence Hauben (1975)
* William Goldman (1976)
* Alvin Sargent (1977)
* Oliver Stone (1978)
* Robert Benton (1979)
* Alvin Sargent (1980)
* Ernest Thompson (1981)
* Costa-Gavras & Donald E. Stewart (1982)
* Julius J. Epstein (1983)

Adapted Comedy
(1969–1983)|

* Arnold Schulman (1969)
* Ring Lardner Jr. (1970)
* John Paxton (1971)
* Jay Presson Allen (1972)
* Alvin Sargent (1973)
* Lionel Chetwynd & Mordecai Richler (1974)
* Neil Simon (1975)
* Blake Edwards & Frank Waldman (1976)
* Larry Gelbart (1977)
* Elaine May & Warren Beatty (1978)
* Jerzy Kosiński (1979)
* Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker (1980)
* Gerald Ayres (1981)
* Blake Edwards (1982)
* James L. Brooks (1983)

Adapted Screenplay
(1984–present)|

* Bruce Robinson (1984)
* Richard Condon & Janet Roach (1985)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1986)
* Steve Martin (1987)
* Christopher Hampton (1988)
* Alfred Uhry (1989)
* Michael Blake (1990)
* Ted Tally (1991)
* Michael Tolkin (1992)
* Steven Zaillian (1993)
* Eric Roth (1994)
* Emma Thompson (1995)
* Billy Bob Thornton (1996)
* Curtis Hanson & Brian Helgeland (1997)
* Scott Frank (1998)
* Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor (1999)
* Stephen Gaghan (2000)
* Akiva Goldsman (2001)
* David Hare (2002)
* Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini (2003)
* Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor (2004)
* Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana (2005)
* William Monahan (2006)
* Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (2007)
* Simon Beaufoy (2008)
* Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner (2009)
* Aaron Sorkin (2010)
* Alexander Payne, Jim Rash & Nat Faxon (2011)
* Chris Terrio (2012)
* Billy Ray (2013)
* Graham Moore (2014)
* Adam McKay & Charles Randolph (2015)
* Eric Heisserer (2016)
* James Ivory (2017)
* Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty (2018)
* Taika Waititi (2019)
* Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern & Nina Pedrad (2020)
* Sian Heder (2021)
* Sarah Polley (2022)
* Cord Jefferson (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement

1950s|

* Sonya Levien (1953)
* Dudley Nichols (1954)
* Robert Riskin (1955)
* Julius Epstein & Philip Epstein and Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich (1956)
* Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder (1957)
* John Lee Mahin (1958)
* Nunnally Johnson (1959)

1960s|

* Norman Krasna (1960)
* George Seaton (1961)
* Philip Dunne (1962)
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1963)
* John Huston (1964)
* Sidney Buchman (1965)
* Isobel Lennart (1966)
* Richard Brooks (1967)
* Casey Robinson (1968)
* Carl Foreman (1969)

1970s|

* Dalton Trumbo (1970)
* James Poe (1971)
* Ernest Lehman (1972)
* William Rose (1973)
* Paddy Chayefsky (1974)
* Preston Sturges (1975)
* Michael Wilson (1976)
* Samson Raphaelson (1977)
* Edward Anhalt (1978)
* Neil Simon (1979)

1980s|

* Billy Wilder & I. A. L. Diamond (1980)
* Ben Hecht (1981)
* Paul Osborn (1982)
* Lamar Trotti (1983)
* Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose, Norman Panama, and Melvin Frank (1984)
* William Goldman (1985)
* Waldo Salt (1986)
* Woody Allen (1987)
* Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. (1988)
* Ring Lardner Jr. (1989)

1990s|

* Donald Ogden Stewart (1990)
* Alvin Sargent (1991)
* Frank Pierson (1992)
* Horton Foote (1993)
* Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1994)
* Charles Bennett (1995)
* Daniel Taradash (1996)
* Robert Towne (1997)
* Bo Goldman (1998)
* Paul Schrader (1999)

2000s|

* Jean-Claude Carrière (2000)
* Betty Comden and Adolph Green (2001)
* Blake Edwards (2002)
* Mel Brooks (2003)
* John Michael Hayes (2004)
* David Mamet (2005)
* Lawrence Kasdan (2006)
* Robert Benton (2007)
* Budd Schulberg (2008)
* No award (2009)

2010s|

* Barry Levinson (2010)
* Steven Zaillian (2011)
* Eric Roth (2012)
* Tom Stoppard (2013)
* Paul Mazursky (2014)
* Harold Ramis (2015)
* Elaine May (2016)
* Oliver Stone (2017)
* James L. Brooks (2018)
* Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (2019)

2020s|

* Nancy Meyers (2020)
* No award (2021)
* No award (2022)
* Charlie Kaufman (2023)

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
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* FAST
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National|

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Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

People|

* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie
* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
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