The collection consists of the extent records of Free Lance, which cover the years 1964-1969. The collection is interesting because several of the student contributors--including Michael Castro, Jon Dressel, Howard Schwartz, and Pamela White--have become prominent St. Louis poets in the years since the magazine ceased publication, and because such nationally-known poets and writers as George Abbe, Robert Bly, R.P. Dickey, Allen Ginsberg, Maxine Kumin, Thomas Merton, William Stafford, and Robert Sward contributed poems, translations, and interviews that were used in the later issues. In most cases the archive includes a copy of the manuscript that was submitted to the Free Lance editorial staff. Besides manuscripts of creative work, the archive includes correspondence to and from the Free Lance editorial board; among the correspondents are George Abbe, Allen Ginsberg, William Inman, Thomas Merton, Marianne Moore, Howard Nemerov. Only those manuscripts and letters written by well-known local or national figures are listed in the finding aid.