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The John Betjeman collection documents the personal and professional life of John Betjeman between 1908 and 1990, with the bulk of material dating between 1936 and 1984. The collection provides evidence of Betjeman's career as a writer and broadcaster and consists of correspondence, writings, personal papers, newspaper clippings, audiovisual materials, and a small number of candid photographs. The collection traces Betjeman's creative process through initial scribblings in his notebooks to more formal drafts and the publishing process (as found in galleys and correspondence with editors and publishers). A substantial volume of the correspondence is from Betjeman to his wife Penelope Chetwode and provides insight into their relationship. More broadly, owing to Betjeman's role as Poet Laureate and connection with various authors, the collection is a window into literary life in Britain during the twentieth century. The majority of the collection is comprised of the Duncan Andrews Collection of John Betjeman.

The collection consists primarily of audio interviews made by John Gerassi with Jean-Paul Sartre between 1970 and 1974. A companion group of interviews with Sartre's family, friends, and foes was made in 1973. Included in this group are: Raymond Aron, Simone de Beauvoir, Arlette Elkaim-Sartre, Claude Lanzmann, and J. B. Pontalis. The majority of these interviews have transcripts. Among the other papers are various works by Sartre on Ethics, in the form of lecture notes and manuscript drafts prepared in the 1960s as well as a list by Sartre of books he read in different periods of his life. Also included are notes by John Gerassi on the origin of the collection.

The John Guare Papers document the work and life of the playwright and educator John Guare. The papers consist of production files, professional correspondence, writings, writings of others, subject files, personal effects, personal papers, photographs, printed material, and one reel-to-reel sound recording. The bulk of the material spans the years 1962-2010.

The John Hersey papers contain writings, correspondence, printed and audiovisual materials, scrapbooks, and family and personal papers. The collection consists of ten small donations made by Hersey between 1944 and 1967 and an acquisition of a major part of his archive in 1992. The early gifts by Hersey contain drafts and proofs for multiple works dating from the early 1940s through mid 1960s, including the successful and popular A Bell for Adano (1944), Hiroshima (1946), and The Wall (1950). The later 1992 acquisition contains additional writings, as well as correspondence and clippings files relating to writings, correspondence, scrapbooks, audiovisual material, and personal papers. Correspondence includes large files for the publishers Alfred A. Knopf and Hamish Hamilton, the literary agent Otis and Williams, The New Yorker, and outgoing letters from Hersey to his mother. Writings include materials relating to Hersey's first book, Men on Bataan (1942), and numerous later works, including White Lotus (1965), The Walnut Door (1977), The Call (1985), and Blues (1987).

The Jonathan Lethem Papers, which span from 1938 to 2016, contain writings in the form of drafts, galley proofs, research, notes related to his novels, short stories, and non-fiction including his most well-known works, Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude. The papers also contain correspondence, clippings, ephemera, audiovisual materials, and electronic media related to Lethem's life and work.

The Joseph Brodsky Papers document the life and work of Russian-born poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky, with a particular emphasis on the time period of his residence in the United States (1972-1996). The papers consist of correspondence, writings, personal papers (including legal, medical and financial records), audiovisual material, teaching material, student papers, newspaper clippings and printed ephemera, spanning the years 1890-2004, with the bulk of the material dating from the period 1972-1996.

The Josephine Herbst Papers document the work of novelist and journalist Josephine Herbst. The papers consist of personal and professional correspondence, drafts of writings, notebooks, research files, printed material, personal and family papers, photographs, artwork, and personal effects spanning the years 1799 to 1969, with the bulk of the material dating from 1901 to 1969.

The Joseph W. and Kit Reed Papers contain correpondence, writings by Joseph and Kit Reed and others, notes and research papers, personal and professional papers, financial papers, photographs, artwork, printed material, audiocassettes and videocassettes, scrapbooks, and computer disks. The papers document their personal and professional lives and artistic endeavors.