Correspondence regarding administration of the University Libraries, the creation and maintenance of the Poetry Collection of Lockwood Library at the University of Buffalo; professional papers including his research and publications; personal records, including biographical material, social correspondence and clippings; records of the Fenton Lecture series, 1935-1941; and records of the Buffalo Film Society, 1935-1938.

The Contemporary Manuscripts Collection contains a total of thousands of pages of manuscripts and/or correspondence from hundreds of poets and writers such as Lascelles Abercrombie, W. H. Auden, David Gascoyne, Elizabeth Jennings, Hugh MacDiarmid, Thomas Merton, Charlotte Mew, Ezra Pound, Alastair Reid, Peter Russell, Winfield Townley Scott, Genevieve Taggard, Ruthven Todd, Henry Treece, and Louis Zukofsky.