Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 January 21 : autograph manuscript signed.

Complaining about "those damn Radcliffe people" and thanking Ivory with his help with all of Renana's university applications; enumerating all the institutions Renana has applied to, and going on to describe Renana's boyfriend Polly's own university applications saga; enclosing "Naipaul's articles about the Ajmer elections" and noting that he wrote much of them in the guest room of the Jhabvala's house; observing that when Naipaul's writing came out well, hers didn't, and vice versa, and that often material written under stress turns out badly; noting, however, that material she wrote "while suffering the strains and sorrows of B.T. ["Bombay Talkie"] still stands"; agreeing with Ivory that so much in a film is out of the hands of the writer and director, and depends upon the actors involved; claiming that the only actress she can think of for Isabel Archer [of "Portrait of a Lady"] is Faye Dunaway, and agreeing with Ivory that there are few American actresses that can convincingly play "upper-class types"; dropping names like Mia Farrow and Jane Fonda; describing a recent incident at home where her copy of "The Wings of the Dove" literally fell into her hands and she suddenly realized it would be an excellent candidate for adaptation, with a character that could be played by Paulita Sedgwick; entreating him to read it-- "The more James you read the better because one day surely you'll make a film of one or even more of his books. You're fated to it [...] So do go on preparing yourself. In a way I feel he stands in the same relation to you as Tagore to the Maestro [Satyajit Ray]"; discussing the pending publication of some of their screenplays and shooting down Ivory's idea for the introduction ("How do you get such frightful ideas?"); describing the "New Yorker-ish, Henry James-ish" dilemma she finds herself in concerning to whom she should send author's copies of her latest book: she doesn't want to send the book-- made up of stories rejected by the New Yorker-- to New Yorker colleagues like Mr. Shawn, Lillian, Roger Angell, or William Maxwell, but this also means that she can't send it to the people she wants to send it to, like Madhur and Jonathan, because they all talk; concluding that she will be sending the book to Ivory and Merchant, Ved, Wally Shawn, and Joe and Angelika Saleh, and begging Ivory not to speak about it to anyone; mentioning two stories from the book that C.P. Snow liked; describing other clippings she has enclosed [not present]; relating the story she read that day that said Anthony Burgess sold the film rights to "A Clockwork Orange" in 1962 for £100-- "It made my hair stand on end (I don't mean the book but the £100)"; noting that Norton used to be Burgess' American publisher.