Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kasauli, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 June 5: autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking Ivory for his two letters [see MA 23840.942 and 943] and voicing concern about the shortness of his current shooting schedule; admitting she may worry more about him than she should, as "you don't mind [things] as much as I mind for you and in fact enjoy situations which fill me with nothing but horror"; consoling herself that often, for both of them, the best work can come out of the most difficult circumstances; agreeing that "this thing of one's personality being separate from one's working life-- it's so true, and sometimes I feel that perhaps my troubles stem largely from the two being at odds with one another"; admitting "I feel I'm not tough and not daring enough to be a 'femme de lettres'"; noting that she has become "very mean-- I hate spending anything," and that "[t]he meanest and most miserly person I know is Vidia Naipaul, and I don't blame him at all for it"; relating "one of my favourite Henry James anecdotes," wherein Edith Wharton attributes her new limousine to the proceeds from her latest novel, and James replies "that he had a sort of push-cart on which he had his guest's luggage brought in the station & recently he'd had it re-painted" with "the proceeds from his [underlined] last novel"; noting that Chekhov, too, "was always hard up"; listing "the things I would really like to do": "1) sing or play the harpsichord; 2) cook ... 3) do exquisite embroidery"; adding that she would also like to be able to "take more pleasure in other people's company"; telling him that the Hindustan Times has sent her checks for Rs. 100 each made out to the two fictional journalists-- Kum Kum Oberoi and Subhash Sen-- who supposedly wrote the fake interview with Ivory [see MA 23840.929], and she didn't know what to do-- "I couldn't very well tell them they'd been hoaxed"-- "so I sent them back with a note to say that the interviews had been a corporate effort and please to make out a cheque for Rs. 200 in favour of MIP and send it to the Bombay office"; asking "How do you feel about bringing out our screenplays in paperback editions in India?"; telling him about "this publisher Malhotra" who has sucessfully introduced paperback publishing to India with his quality imprints Hind Pocket Books and Orient Paperback, and who is interested in publishing their screenplays; leaving the decision to Ivory because "it will involve quite a bit of work for you because it's you who would have to get [them] ready for publication and find and select the stills, etc."; telling him that, if he agrees, Merchant should get in touch with the publisher; also broaching Jhab's idea that they buy back the distribution rights to "Householder" from Columbia, and put Shashi's office in charge of it "now that Shashi has a running office and knows about bookings"; describing another idea of Jhab's, for a charity benefit screening of all four of Merchant Ivory's films in Delhi, planned with and for the Women's Polytechnic, who arranged the "Bombay Talkie" Delhi premiere [see MA 23840.932]; acknowledging receipt of Ivory's letter of May 30 [see MA 23840.856] and demanding that he shave his beard immediately and "stop eating potato salad"-- "here I've been thinking of you looking all ethereal and pale and souffrant, and there you are stuffing yourself"; noting, after a pause of a few hours-- "I've been lying in bed breathing hard in agitation"-- that "everything else in your letter sounded reassuring and all right"; noting that Ivory often fails to mention "things that would flatten other people [but] don't seem to affect you all that much"; expressing some confusion over the historical periods Ivory cites for his film-- "you call the grand dinner party Victorian, and yet refer to it as Edwardian ... and from your last letter I got the impression-- erroneously, obviously-- that the whole thing was in '30s style"; commenting on what actors bring to their roles, and admitting she didn't understand this at first, but still always felt on the actors' side, probably because Subrata Mitra wasn't on their side either; admitting Ivory is right about how much she hates the shooting period of making a film, and describing in detail her feelings during their past shoots, particularly "The Guru" and "Bombay Talkie," where she felt "like a hired hand" dealing with Fox and Joe Saleh and his wife; asking about the status of "your hommage [sic] in England" [see MA 23840.930] and asking him, if he goes there, to "please try and see Catherine [Freeman]"; asking him to insquire as to whether the birthday present she arranged for Matthew Freeman was bought or not; describing in detail the domestic situation between Catherine and John, and giving Ivory Catherine's address in London; lamenting "Catherine's letters are so painful, so anguished. It is a terrible thing to happen to any woman (perhaps the worst)-- but to her! who is made only for triumph and happiness. And she is such a positive, assertive person-- so used to taking action, to taking bold steps, to take what she wants and take it fearlessly: but now what can she do?"; telling him "Nana and I have just come back from the Kasauli post office (it's now Sunday, 6 June) where we went to send a telegram for your birthday [see MA 23840.947]; referring to "my permanent birthday card" which she bought for Ivory "because I knew I wasn't going to be with you on our birthday very often"; assuming that Merchant "is arranging all sorts of grand and joyous celebrations" for Ivory's birthday, and looking forward to the coming year, which "we all have a stake in ... though separately"; describing their respective stakes-- the Nirad Chaudhuri documentary and "our present film" for Ivory and Merchant, and her novel and book of short stories for her; voicing concern that eventually her publishers won't want to publisher her any more because they're not recouping their investment; telling him to write to her in Delhi, as they will be returning on the 13th, and telling him he should "get hold of" a book called "Mother India's Children" by Edward Rice, "which is a series of interviews with Indian teenagers, and Nana is one of them [see MA 23840.713]."