Fonds consists of 6 series: correspondence, 1961-1987, primarily Earle Birney; literary manuscripts, ca. 1954-1957, including fiction and plays; research, ca. 1962-1987; printed materials, ca. 1954-1988, primarily journal offprints and copies; indices, ca. 1962-1987. The indices consist of research card groups including: animals; slang dictionaries; women in medieval medicine; medieval medical books; symbolism; The Canterbury Tales, and miscellaneous subjects.

The fonds consists primarily of correspondence with many individuals, including Richard Aldington, Wilfred R. Childe, Alex Comfort, Edward Dahlberg, Bonamy and Valentine Dobree, T. S. Eliot, Naum Gabo, Rayner Heppenstall, Barbara Hepworth, David Jones, Jacob Kramer, Percy Wyndham Lewis, Henry Miller, Henry Moore, Frank Morley, Edwin Muir, Ben Nicholson, Alfred R. Orage, George Orwell, Robert Payne, Kathleen Raine, Stephen Spender, Adrian Stokes, Allen Tate, Arthur W. Wheen, George Woodcock and Wilhelm Worringer. Also included are notebooks, worksheets, proofs and mimeographed BBC programs; mostly from the 1950s and 1960s.