Letter from James Ivory, Claverack, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1986 January 20 : typescript signed.

Describing an unusual Hudson Valley Nativity play-- put on by George Trow and featuring James Taylor and Michael O'Donoghue-- that Ivory, Merchant, and Stephen Frears recently attended; mentioning how Linda Hunt was also supposed to have acted in it, but was "indisposed" and how good "Ham Fish" looked without his beard; describing their difficulties in finding the venue, and "the usual sort of formless George Trow party" that followed; describing the recent visits of Dick [Richard Robbins] and Tony [Anthony Corner]; reporting on the reception on "Room with a View" in New York and London; and the sorry state of their friend Chuck [Charles McCaughan]; describing his and Merchant's recent interactions with "Mrs. Onassis" and the state of teh personnel in the Claverack post office; offering an amusing bit of trivia about Thomas Jefferson.