Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 March 17 : autograph manuscript signed.

Asking Ivory to ask his friend Cary Welch to inquire about the late admissions process at Harvard and Radcliffe for Renana, as "Those places seem so much nearer somehow" than universities on the west coast of America; assuming Renana's boyfriend Polly won't have any problem getting into a U.S. university, and describing his academic career thus far; describing why she assumes Renana's admission will be more difficult, at least until she can take the S.A.T.; saying she also plans to contact her old friend Herb Gans to ask him to inquire about M.I.T.; elaborating on her meeting with Elizabeth Chatwin [see MA 23840.923] and describing the artist [unnamed here] travelling with Penelope Betjeman [i.e. Penelope Chetwode] to work on "her book on the wooden temples of Manali," who has also worked with John Betjeman; commenting on Chatwin, "I can only say that I was struck by her physical plain-ness, even roughness, with no attempts to soften or improve this"; declining to discuss "the other Elizabeth-- yes, there are two" because she has just washed her hair and "it's dripping on the paper."