The collection consists of theater, film, book, and radio reviews clipped from newspapers and magazines; correspondence; theater and ballet programs; radio and film scripts; and notes from lectures given by the poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot, as well as personal impressions of the two poets and of Walter Huston. Letters from the following have been indexed: Alyse Gregory, 9 letters; E. E. Cummings, 4 letters; Clifford Odets, 3 letters; Marianne Moore, 6 letters; Llewelyn Powys, 9 letters.

Clifford Odets was an American playwright. He was born in 1906 to Russian and Romanian immigrants. Odets dropped out of high school, striking out on his own to pursue a career in acting. He was a founding member of the Group Theatre in New York that utilized a new technique in acting based on the ideas of Constantin Stanislavski. The Group Theatre was further developed by director Lee Strasberg. Odets was married twice, both to actresses: Luise Rainer and Bette Grayson. The collection consists of his original plays and screenplays, including drafts. These were at one time loaned to Margaret Brenman-Gibson for work on her biography of Odets, which was published in 1981. There is a small section of personal papers that includes clippings, correspondence, ephemera, notes, and his secretary's appointment book.