BIB_ID
453664
Accession number
MA 23840.932
Creator
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927-2013, sender.
Credit line
Gift of James Ivory, 2021.
Description
2 items (4 pages) ; 26.7 x 20.3 cm
Notes
Year from postmark.
Written across two aerogrammes.
Aerogrammes addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A., postmarked April 16, 1971.
The "stories" Jhabvala refers to here make up her 1971 short story collection "An Experience of India."
Jhabvala's novel "A New Dominion" was published in 1972.
Jhabvala's reference to "your Interview" concerns a fictitious interview with himself that Ivory wrote to answer his Indian critics; the piece appeared in the Hindustan Times as "An Interview with James Ivory" on April 25, 1971.
Written across two aerogrammes.
Aerogrammes addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A., postmarked April 16, 1971.
The "stories" Jhabvala refers to here make up her 1971 short story collection "An Experience of India."
Jhabvala's novel "A New Dominion" was published in 1972.
Jhabvala's reference to "your Interview" concerns a fictitious interview with himself that Ivory wrote to answer his Indian critics; the piece appeared in the Hindustan Times as "An Interview with James Ivory" on April 25, 1971.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Recounting the current state of Renana and Polly's-- "his name is really Farrokh"-- American university admissions woes; announcing "Mehra Masani is coming to New York at the end of the month," giving him the address of where Masani will be staying, and saying Masani will be seeing them and, hopefully, Madhur; telling him, "We've placed your Interview with the Hindustan Times where it would be the most useful just now, since H.T. has the largest circulation in North India where the film ["Bombay Talkie"] is now being released"; expressing disgust with Kushwant Singh for declining to publish the interview, as well as for "tamper[ing]" with the text of her own article, which he did publish in the "Illustrated Weekly"; telling him that Jhab and Shashi have set the Delhi premiere-- "in spite of all my pleas to the contrary"-- for the 29th, as a benefit for the Women's Polytechnic; relating an anecdote from Jhab illustrating how little Shashi knows about the practicalities of promoting the event; complaining that "Prabhu is taking Rs. 500 a month as adviser from [Shashi] & does absolutely nothing"; describing the problems arising from handling the film's distribution themselves; expressing sorrow at how much money Shashi is losing on the film; changing the subject-- "It seems my stories are coming out in the autumn, after all"; noting that she will also have a novel coming out in 1972, one for which she just wrote "my last line of a first draft" on April 5-- "it's all there though still in very raw, unlicked form [...] Now I have to sort all that out and test it word by word and turn it around and upside down and try things out this way and that way"; comparing the work to Ivory's labors on the film-- "compared with the 8 months that have just passed, it will be easy work"; asking him to send her a copy of "The American" as she now has the time and inclination to read it; suggesting that, if he sends anything by registered mail, to send it to Jhab's office on Connaught Circus (and providing the full address) because "[i]t is air conditioner time again" and impossible to hear the postman when he arrives; looking back on what a "curious winter" it has been.
Catalog link
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