Letter from James Ivory, Los Angeles, California, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1974 January 17 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying of Los Angeles, "This is really enemy territory"; noting that Merchant must be contrasting their current experience with his previous visit to L.A. at the age of 24; telling her "We're going to Riverside to see the Mission Inn, via Palm Springs to meet with Truman Capote" about a script Capote has written and to which Warren Beatty was briefly attached; adding that Dorothy Swope [actor Dorothy McGuire] will be having them to lunch as well, to meet Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy; reassuring her that he understands that "The Wild Party" will require a full rewrite, and musing on the odd circumstances of having the original writer, Walter Marks, "dragging ... along after [us]"; feeling optimistic about George Trow's potential input, and reassuring her that the "unpleasant" scenes in "Savages" were all written by Michael O'Donoghue; telling her he recently visited Hearst Castle, and bought a book on it that he will lend her when he's finished it; letting her know that "Edith Welch is coming [to India] the end of the month with blouses for you [see MA 23840.1227] and rocks for Jhab"; wondering what Cary will have to say about his pictures.