Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1974 February 11 : typescript signed.

Acknowledging receipt of her telegram and telling her "The search for a Cyril Sahib goes on," as John Mills and Paul Scofield have turned them down, and word is Ralph Richardson is having trouble working effectively; saying that they're currently considering James Mason-- "His agent is Barry [Foster]'s agent and had been trying to get us to use him for ages"-- and Olivier, Alec Guinnes, John Gielgud, and Michael Redgrave are also possibilities; telling him he's been considering casting their old friend Nazrul Rahman as the Maharaja; noting that he has "started to be paid for The Wild Party" and they have cast David Dukes as the Poet; describing how he thinks George Trow will be useful on the project; describing the "very, very boring" birthday lunch for Dorrie Swope at the Swope's home; musing on a certain kind of well-to-do young society woman, leading him to reflect on his late friend Alida and her daughter Merlie; relating how they went to "Dudley's restaurant" and Dudley "put his arm around Ismail's shoulder and led him off to talk," apparently about some silverware from Georg Jensen that went missing on the set at Beechwood, and for which Joe Saleh [as producer] never paid, "so they're trying to get it out of poor Dudley"; saying the first half of her letter [see MA 23840.1382] has arrived and he's waiting for the second part before replying; telling her about the book he's currently reading, "The Journal of Andrew Bihaly."