Bernice Rubens
Bernice Rubens was a prominent British novelist and documentary filmmaker, born on July 26, 1923, in Cardiff, Wales, to a Jewish family with roots in Latvia. Her early life was marked by the musical talents of her siblings, though she only began learning the cello as a teenager due to financial constraints. Rubens studied English at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and initially pursued a career in teaching before transitioning into documentary filmmaking, where she earned recognition for works such as her award-winning film "Stress" in 1968.
Rubens eventually shifted her focus to writing, producing an impressive body of work that included twenty-five novels, many of which explore familial relationships and complex human behaviors, often set against the backdrop of Jewish culture. Her novel "The Elected Member" won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1970, and she received several other literary awards throughout her career, including the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize in 1990. Notably, some of her works were adapted into films, broadening her audience and impact. Rubens passed away on October 13, 2004, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most successful British novelists of her time, celebrated for her insightful and thought-provoking storytelling.
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Subject Terms
Bernice Rubens
Writer
- Born: July 26, 1923
- Birthplace: Cardiff, Wales
- Died: October 13, 2004
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Bernice Rubens was born on July 26, 1923, in Cardiff, Wales, the daughter of Eli Rubens and Dorothy Cohen. Her father left Latvia for America to escape anti-Semitism, but was cheated on his ticket and ended up in Wales. He met his wife there, and they had four children. Rubens’s two brothers and sister learned to play the violin their father had brought from Latvia and all became professional musicians. Rubens wanted to play cello, but her family could not afford to buy one, so she did not learn to play until she was a teenager. Although she did not perform professionally, she enjoyed playing for the rest of her life.
Rubens studied English at the University of Wales, Cardiff. She married Rudi Nassbauer and had two daughters, Sharon and Rebecca. Her husband later left her after twenty-three years of marriage.
Rubens did not have early aspirations to be a writer. She taught school for several years and then became a documentary filmmaker, producing films about mentally handicapped children and blind people, among other subjects. She traveled to Africa and Asia to make a film about women in developing rural areas. She received the American Blue Ribbon award in 1968 for her film Stress. Once she started writing, she alternated films with novels, gradually switching entirely to novel writing. A prolific writer, she completed twenty-five novels and had written a draft of her memoirs at the time of her death on October 13, 2004.
Many of Rubens’s novels focus on relationships within families, particularly Jewish families like the one in which she grew up. They also fictionalize extreme types of human behaviors, and many contain murders or suicides. The Elected Member won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1970; A Five Year Sentencewas short-listed for this award in 1978. Rubens received the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize in 1990 for Kingdom Come. She won the Arts Council of Wales Literature Award three times. I Sent a Letter to My Love was made into a film released in 1981 starring Simone Signoret and Jean Rochefort; the 1988 film version of Madame Sousatzka starred Shirley MacLaine. Mr. Wakefield’s Crusades (1985) was the basis for a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television miniseries. Rubens was one of the most successful British novelists of the second half of the twentieth century, enjoying widespread critical and popular acclaim.