The collection consists of correspondence, notebooks, manuscript drafts and typescripts, galley and page proofs of novels and plays, manuscript drafts and tear sheets of essays, writing notebooks, background files, financial records, and documents. Bound proofs have been catalogued and placed with the books. The collection is principally in the order established by MacInnes. The correspondence with his publisher is divided according to the publication to which it pertains, and most of the rest of the correspondence is filed with the manuscript drafts to which it was attached. The presence of correspondence is indicated in the register by an asterisk. The exceptions are letters to and from Elepeth Huxley, and letters from Robert Graves, Sidney Nolan, John Osborne, and Sir John Gielgud, which are indexed and filed at the beginning of the correspondence. Events in MacInnes' life that are documented in the collection are his early years in Brussels, his bankruptcy about 1960, his abortive trip to Africa in 1971 under the auspices of the British Council, and his hospital treatment during his final illness.