Materials in this subseries consist of poems and prose written when Kunitz was an undergraduate at Harvard, notes and notebooks, manuscripts of volumes of poetry, prose, and individual poems and essays, and dozens of translations that Kunitz did through the 1960s and 1970s of Russian and Eastern European poets.

The materials in these files represent the scope of Kunitz's career as a professional poet, at least in the years predominant to Series 14 (1990-2005). They include files on subjects, readings, prizes, and unlike material in other subseries, such as "Writings" or "Correspondence," these files contain a wide range of materials reflecting the totality of work performed. Therefore among the files on Paul Celan, one will find drafts of speeches and poems that Kunitz wrote, alongside ephemera from venues where Kunitz performed. The subject files mirror as closely as possible Kunitz's approach to organizing his materials.