The Williams Papers span the period 1836 to 1947 with the bulk dating from 1904 to 1942. The collection contains the following series: Diaries and Reminiscences; Correspondence; Subject Files; Legal Papers; Financial Papers; Writings and Speeches; Miscellaneous; Clippings; Printed Material; and Pictures. Correspondence comprises the majority of the collection and particularly focuses on Williams's professional career during the period from 1910 to 1925 when he was editor of the Tucson Citizen and the Boston Evening Transcript. While the collection documents aspects of Williams's personal and professional life from his college days through the early 1940s, the last twenty years of his life are not included. There is as well very little information about the Teapot Dome Affair in the correspondence, which occurred during the period covered by the collection.
The Patricia Rowe Willrich Papers, 1948-1996, are comprised of published and unpublished autobiographical writings; essays and lectures on contemporary American authors; correspondence with contemporary American authors; and miscellaneous other papers related to 20th century American literature. The writers featured in the correspondence include Maxine Hong Kingston, Larry McMurtry, John McPhee, Reynolds Price, Wallace Stegner, Peter Taylor, and Anne Tyler. The most extensive correspondence is with Anne Tyler and is arranged in the Anne Tyler Papers Series.