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As It Was: Oregon-Raised Director Vacations at Lake of the Woods

The movie director, James Ivory, is known for English period pieces such as “Room with a View,” “Howard’s End,” and “The Remains of the Day.”  Less known is that he grew up in Klamath Falls, Ore., and still spends summers at the family cabin at Lake of the Woods.

Ivory’s father had a lumber mill near Bly before moving the family to Klamath Falls in the 1930’s.  Ivory graduated from Klamath Union High School and received a degree in architecture and fine arts from the University of Oregon.

Ivory has said that visiting the family cabin allows him, as he put it, to reconnect with “people I’ve known all my life that have helped to form and make me the person I am.”  He has a special affection for the film titled “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,” starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, because it reminds him of his parents and early years in Klamath Falls.  He lives in New York, but says, “Small town life, that’s where I come from.”

Now 88, Ivory received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ashland Independent Film Festival this year.  His papers are collected in the University of Oregon archives.
 

Sources: Juillerat, Lee. "James Ivory (1928-)." Oregon Encyclopedia, Portland State University and Oregon Historical Society, 2017, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/ivory_james_1928_/#.WPQQtNIrJPY. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017; "Auteur James Ivory still keeps Oregon cabin." Oregon Live/Associated Press, 28 Aug. 2010 [Portland, Ore.] www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2010/08/auteur_james_ivory_still_keeps_oregon_cabin.html. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

Sharon Bywater of Ashland, Oregon grew up in Southern California. She taught English literature and writing at Syracuse University in New York, where she also wrote and edited adult literacy books and published freelance articles in local media. Later, she lived in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an international telecommunications policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She has Master’s degrees in English and Communications Management.