The Donald Finkel Papers include his extensive research materials, journals, notes, and heavily revised manuscripts. A large collection of editorial matter toward all of his books and a small, yet revealing professional correspondence with editors and literary colleagues completes the Finkel Papers.

The John Rison Fordyce Papers consists primarily of material towards a history of the DeSoto expedition, entitled "Trailing DeSoto." In addition to chapter drafts, the collection contains typed and autograph notecards, various maps, and a scrapbook.

The Isabella Gardner Papers contain manuscript and editorial material toward most of her books drafts of individual poems as well as letters to and from various editors, friends, and family.

The Hurst Papers consist of a small quantity of correspondence (most of it between Hurst and her school friend Lois Toensfeldt), the manuscript for her novel Quiet Street, some diary material, and a group of clippings and memorabilia. Special Collections also holds Hurst's personal collection of her published work which includes a complete set of first and variant editions, translations, and other copies of her books.

The David Jackson Papers consists of extensive correspondence, photographs of family and friends, and manuscript material towards Jackson’s poems, stories, and plays.

The Charles Johnson Papers hold both published and unpublished work from the author spanning nearly six decades. The collection brings together manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, artwork, and ephemera and serves as a testament to Johnson’s wide-ranging career as a public intellectual.

Manuscripts, scrapbooks, and clippings of work by Clark Mills McBurney. Also included are excerpts from work by William Jay Smith and Tennessee Williams concerning their youth in St. Louis, where they were both friends with McBurney.

The collection holds a wide variety of materials that document James Ingram Merrill's entire life.

The extensive correspondence is between Merrill and his family, friends, business associates, and others. Thousands of pages of heavily annotated notebooks, typescripts, worksheets, and galleys show Merrill's work towards poems, fiction, and drama. The audiovisual and personal material document other aspects of Merrill's life.