Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 March 4 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
453619
Accession number
MA 23840.922
Creator
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927-2013, sender.
Credit line
Gift of James Ivory, 2021.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 26.7 x 20.3 cm
Notes
Year from postmark.
Aerogramme addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A., postmarked March 5, 1971.
The term "toad" is Jhabvala family slang, adopted by Ivory and Merchant, for a pretty, well brought-up woman with little originality or intelligence.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Asking Ivory to add $20 to the application packet she is sending him and send it on to Stanford University; discussing various American universities Renana and Polly [Renana's boyfriend] are applying to; describing how unhappy Renana is at Delhi University, "surrounded by the most depressing toads"; supposing "Jennifer has written to you by now and told you all about the film and sent you reviews. I haven't seen one single Bombay review yet"; asserting "Indian reviews are simply not worth reading. Ismail says, quite correctly, that they just don't know how to write"; decrying the "hollow, forced content" of most Indian film reviews, contrasted with Amita Malik's work-- "her instincts are non-existent, or rather quite common and vulgar, & her sensibilities are coarse but at least she trusts herself to express them"; recounting in great detail a horrific event concerning one of the Jhabvala's dogs and her ill-fated puppies.