The collection consists of the editorial and production archives of Vanguard Press: correspondence, manuscripts, contracts, memoranda, galley proofs, photographs, clippings, and printed materials. The correspondence and editorial files contain a wealth of detailed information about individual authors and the growth and development of the Press. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Stephen Vincent Benét, William Rose Benét; Phyllis Bottome; Pierre Boulle; Jocelyn Brooke; Cyril Connolly; A.J. Cronin; Nigel Dennis; John Dewey; Max Eastman; James T. Farrell; Vardis Fisher; Richard Garnett; Theodor Seuss Geisel; Louis Golding; Paul Goodman; Horace Gregory; Geoffrey Grigson; Lillian Hellman; William Heyen; Harold L. Ickes; Christopher Isherwood; Alfred Kazin; Philip Lamantia; Sinclair Lewis; Emanuel Litvinoff; Dwight Macdonald; Archibald MacLeish; Marshall McLuhan; Thomas Mann; Edgar Lee Masters; H. L. Mencken; William Meredith; Joyce Carol Oates; Katherine Anne Porter; Barbara Pym; William Sansom; William Saroyan; Ramon J. Sender; Upton Sinclair; Rex Stout; Edith Sitwell; Paul Theroux; Lionel Trilling; Harry S. Trumam; Louis Untermeyer; Eudora Welty; Richard Wilbur; and Thornton Wilder. There are some manuscripts by Bellow; Bottome; Boulle; Farrell; Grigson; Litvinoff; MacDonald; Oates; John Cowper Powys; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Patrick Tanner; William Targ; Theroux; and Sitwell.

The Lionel Trilling Papers document the life of author, professor, and literary critic, Lionel Trilling. This collection contains his writings, extensive correspondence with other New York intellectuals, personal documents, and other records concerning his professional activities.

The Diana Trilling Papers document the life of literary and cultural critic, Diana Trilling. This collection contains her writings, extensive correspondence with other New York intellectuals, and subject files for her research as well as for the Lionel Trilling Estate.

The Sol Stein Papers chart the literary life of author, editor and publisher, Sol Stein, who in addition to his own career as novelist and playwright, founded the publishing house Stein and Day. His papers contain correspondence with important literary figures; multiple drafts of his plays, novels and non-fiction writing; and correspondence which closely documents the editing process. The papers also include some material relating to Stein's political activities as Executive Director of The American Committee for Cultural Freedom and as Ideological Analyst and writer for The Voice of America.

Eric. L McKitrick, a historian of American History, was a professor at Columbia University from 1960-1989. He is known for his work on the development of the party system, slavery and the Old South, and Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960). His papers include teaching materials and files, correspondence, and extensive research files related to The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800 (1993). There is also documentation of his activities with Grace Church, the Century Association, and the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

Personal and Professional papers of writer and magazine editor Leo Lerman. The papers include correspondence, professional papers, topical files, research files, and photographs.

Letters written to Jacobson from Jacques Barzun, William Phillips, Mario Praz, David Stacton, Diana Trilling, and Lionel Trilling, concerning a variety of personal, literary, and academic matters. Also, a Stacton typescript, and one miscellaneous letter.

Manuscripts, recordings and administrative files related to the Lionel Trilling Seminars which were established as a memorial to Professor Lionel Trilling in 1976.

Personal, academic, and legal correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and memoranda. Among the legal files, there is particular emphasis on labor and welfare law. The files also contain materials about his judicial appointment, the American Law Institute, the Columbia University School of Law, and the Project on International Procedure. Among the major correspondents are: James A. Farley, Arthur J. Goldberg, Philip C. Jessup, Robert F. Kennedy, Harold R. Medina, James A. Pike, and Lionel Trilling

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, word lists, documents, photographs, clippings, periodicals, and other printed materials concerning his writings, translations, and criticism. Most of the manuscript drafts and notes are for his critical and analytical studies of Finnegans Wake and of other works by James Joyce.