The Elkin Papers consist primarily of Elkin's own manuscripts, including his plays, filmscripts, essays, and stories, with the bulk of the material being manuscripts and editorial matter toward his novels. Elkin's manuscripts include all stages of his drafts, from autograph notes written on university exam books to diskettes containing word proccessor files. Also included in the Papers are an extensive general and professional correspondence, manuscripts by other authors, teaching materials, and his own college literary papers.

Group 3 consists primarily of materials after Stanley Elkin's death including correspondence to Joan Elkin involving his literary estate and condolence cards; royalty statements; contracts concerning reprints of Eklin's books by the Dalkey Archive Press, Avon, Open Road Media, and others; print materials featuring Elkin's work; and clippings.  Also includes some personal memorabilia including Elkin's high school diploma and Bar Mitzvah invitation.

Group 4 consists of born digital materials from Elkin’s PC hard drive and floppy disks.  The contents are currently inaccessible in their original formats.  Elkin first worked on a Lexitron VT 1303 Word Processor, and then on an early MS-DOS PC using Just Type Software from the Lexitronix Corporation. The 5.25” floppy disks associated with the Lexitron VT contain working drafts of the novel George Mills, but they are inaccessible due to hardware limitations.  The hard drive and 5.25” floppy disks associated with the PC contain a variety of materials including drafts, essays, and letters from 1991-1995.  While the original files are inaccessible due to hardware and software limitations, derivative copies from earlier recovery projects are available in Plain Text and Word Perfect formats.