Letter from Ismail Merchant, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1971 December 28 : autograph manuscript signed.

Apologizing for not writing sooner; telling her he spoke to Catherine [Freeman] while in London and assuring Jhabvala that she is "feeling much better and was trying to arrange her life in some definite order," and that "the Roses" had provided her some money to help her; wishing she [Jhabvala] had met Jeanne and Daniel Rose, but assuming "you soon will"; apologizing for not seeing her mother "Mrs. Prawer" on this trip; telling her he is "not enjoying coming back to New York" as there are "endless problems" for him to resolve with "Savages"; assuring her, however, that he is happy with the film itself and thinks that "Jim has done an excellent job"; lamenting the fact that it takes so much time to get projects done; telling her he has screened the footage from Rajasthan and is very happy with it-- while it lacks "the mastery of Subrata's art," it will work beautifully "for T.V. screen [sic]"; assuring her that Ivory has sent off "all the applications" [for Renana's university studies] and letters to Filmways [probably regarding the aborted "A Lovely World"], and is "fussing over the photographs" for the "Guru" and "Shakespeare Wallah" scripts to be published together in India; asking, "Please tell Jhab that I will be after him"; thanking her for the birthday [unreadable] and telling her about their "very nice Christmas"; noting that, once again, neither of them received any kind of "greetings" from Shashi or Jennifer and wondering if money is tight for them; sending seasons' greetings to her, Jhab, and the children, and asking her to write.