The collection contains correspondence files of Walter Lowenfels and his wife Lillian with poets, publishers, and the Broadside record label for New jazz poets; manuscript poems, contracts, and biographical materials; setting copy, galleys, andpage mock-ups.

The papers of Pennsylvania State University English professor and author E. J. Nichols consist of typescripts, proofs, and galleys for several of his books, and correspondence. The correspondence includes 5 letters of H. L. Mencken (1943), as well as John Barth, James Farrell, Fred Lewis Pattee, and Theodore Roethke.

ohn O'Hara was an American novelist and short story writer originally from Pottsville, Pa. In the 1950s and 1960s. O'Hara was one of the most popular, prolific, and financially successful authors in the United States. A realist-naturalist writer, O'Hara emphasized complete objectivity in his books, writing frankly about the materialistic aspirations and sexual exploits of his characters. The collection contains the personal and professional papers of John O'Hara including correspondence with family, friends, editors (Bennett Cerf, Walter S. Farquhar, and William Maxwell), and other writers (F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck); manuscripts of his novellas, novels, plays, screenplays, and short stories; newspaper clippings, articles, reviews, and scrapbooks about his life and work; photographs of John O'Hara and acquaintances; his book awards; and posters, lobby cards, press books, and a record album for films made from his novels.

Fred Lewis Pattee was an author, poet, scholar, teacher, and leading authority on American literature. The collection includes correspondence, family papers, diaries, travel journals, original works, publications, newspaper clippings, lecture notes, lectures, research notes and scrapbooks, and photographs.

Conrad Richter was an American novelist from Pennsylvania known for his nostalgic portrayal of American frontier life and character. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 and the National Book Award in 1960. The bulk of this collection contains manuscript drafts, galleys, and page proofs for his writings.

Philip Young came to the Pennsylvania State University in 1959 as Professor of American Literature. The collection consists of Philip Young's working papers, chiefly his notes, drafts, research notes, reviews, and other items connected with his books and essays on Ernest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and other figures in American literature and history.

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