Letter from Svetlana Allilueva, Richland Center, Wisconsin, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 2008 March 27 : typescript signed.

Describing how much she loves Merchant Ivory's films and how often she watches them; discussing her children-- a "rather dull" son and daughter in Russia, and her American-born youngest daughter [Olga Peters, later Chrese Evans]--"very pretty, very American ... my joy and pride"; recalling Krishnamurti and musing that his western followers, even Mary Zimbalist, have never really known or understood him; requesting that Ivory return the trove of family photographs she lent him several years ago; sending "my very best warmest wishes" to Ruth Jhabvala; returning to her own living situation; signing off but continuing in an extended postscript; musing on how much she wanted to write, but Western publishers only wanted political commentary from her, whereas she was only interested in "languages, arts, photography, and writing"; again proudly describing her daughter'-- "I have in her the best friend I could find"; summing up her "odyssey" of a life: "I have left the USSR, good. But-- I forgot that governments and secret service exist everywhere, even in so-called democracies. And I have not learned to fight; this I was not taught. So, I just drifted with a river; like a log."