About Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (née Prawer; 7 May 1927 – 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. After marrying Indian architect Cyrus Jhabvala in 1951 and moving from England to New Delhi, she began to write novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories. After moving to the United States, she started writing screenplays for Merchant Ivory films. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar. Her first novel, To Whom She Will, was published in 1955. In 1975, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust, later adapted into a film.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.