Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1971 May 30 : carbon copy typescript.

Describing, in a self-deprecating way, the beard he is currently growing, and noting that he is gaining weight when he assumed he'd lose it; describing the actors ("like wayward school children") he's working with-- "an old man who's like a combination of Gardner Stanbridge and Jim Tytler," and an actress "Anne Francine, who plays the hostess-- who reminds me of Mr. Kendal in her bloodymindedness"; mentioning Paulita Sedgwick, who reminds him of Foo [Felicity Kendal], and Kathleen Widdoes, who reminds him of Mrs. Kendal; describing the challenges faced by one "poor fellow" who is playing a woman [probably Christopher Pennock] and admitting that even Eva Saleh (then a child) "is good"; relating how Merchant has been cooking "an Indian feast" on Friday nights after rushes and they all have a party to unwind; saying Madhur visited recently, and saying how happy he is with Asha Putli's performance; telling her "It amuses me more than anything to find that George Trow's rections to the shooting are exactly like yours" in that Trow cannot bear to be on set; assuming, however, that Trow will want to be present in the editing room; discussing the running time of the film; telling her that he had heard "about Catherine" [Freeman, regarding the end of her marriage to John Freeman] from Merchant, who heard from Joanne Rosen; wondering what would have happened if John and Catherine had taken on his friend Gwenda Hyman as his secretary instead of the one he did choose, and ultimately left his wife for; speculating that John is "the kind of man-- like those movie stars and millionaires and socialite types one reads of-- who needs dsome new young woman every few years, who is incapable of a long relationship, but who is captured in the end by some determined older woman, who makes a fine home for him in his old age. Read about Louis XIV's love affairs and Mme. de Maintenon."