BIB_ID
453663
Accession number
MA 23840.931
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 April 1, 1971.
The "book of stories" Jhabvala refers to here is her 1971 collection, "An Experience of India."
The "Nirad Chaudhuri" documentary mentioned in this letter is "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization" (1971); "Flashman" was a planned film adaptation of George MacDonald Fraser's novel, to be directed by Richard Lester. The project fell through.
Aerogramme addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A., postmarked April 1, 1971.
The "book of stories" Jhabvala refers to here is her 1971 collection, "An Experience of India."
The "Nirad Chaudhuri" documentary mentioned in this letter is "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization" (1971); "Flashman" was a planned film adaptation of George MacDonald Fraser's novel, to be directed by Richard Lester. The project fell through.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Noting that her latest "book of stories" is going to be delayed, but "I'm rather relieved. I don't quite feel like having another disappointment this year"; telling him "I wish I could be like George Herbert, the 17th century metaphysical poet," who didn't publish at all during his lifetime; listing and describing each of the stories collected in the volume; discussing the contents of Ivory's letter dated March 17 [see MA 23840.844], his positive spin on the disappointment of "Bombay Talkie" and how it differs from her own; asking "supposing we knew then what we know now, everything we could lose and everything we would have to endure-- would you still have gone ahead with it? Really? Would you? These are foolish, idle questions [...] but they keep coming back to me"; recalling the atmosphere during the shoot: "weren't we unhappy then too? [...] Ismail was hysterical a good part of the time and he drove himself mad and you mad and I'm afraid quite a few other people too who were not well treated"; begging Ivory not to make another film in India, as he seems to be contemplating: "[P]lease, please! Not now! Not yet! [...] Don't turn your thoughts here for the next few years"; lamenting the fact that that they couldn't make the money for Merchant that he hopes to earn by working on "Flashman"; asking how far Ivory has gotten with the Chaudhuri documentary, and how urgently he needs the Chaudhuri book he requested of her.
Catalog link
Department