The collection contains materials documenting the artistic, professional, and personal activities of Gerard Malanga. Materials include correspondence, research and subject files, drafts and printed versions of writings, photographic materials, audiovisual materials, printed materials, and artwork. There is correspondence with publishers and editors, galleries and cultural organizations, writers, friends, and family. The research files and writings document work by Malanga and others. There are drafts, autograph manuscript and typescript, of a great many individual poems by Malanga and more extensive, though scattered files for collections of poems and other book-length projects, such as Ten Years After (1977), This Will Kill That (1983), Mythologies of the Heart (1996), and Scopophilia (1985). Materials can also be found for projects that relate to Malanga's work as a photograph archivist for the New York City Parks Department, including books on Robert Moses and public swimming facilities in the city. Photographic materials include negatives, contact sheets, and prints, and feature portraits of writers and artists, chiefly American poets, dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Audiovisual materials include audiocassettes, reel-to-reel sound recordings, and optical media, including readings and performances by Malanga and others. Printed materials include posters, issues of magazines, clippings, and ephemera.