The papers consist of correspondence and manuscripts of most of Caroline Gordon's published works, as well as some unpublished manuscripts, dating mainly from the 1930s to the 1970s. There are typescripts, often with autograph corrections, for ten novels, two nonfiction works, an anthology, 28 short stories, approximately 21 lectures, 20 essays, a play, several poems, and a transcribed series of dreams. Notable works are The Glory of Hera, The Malefactors, None Shall Look Back and How to Read a Novel. Also included are documents, photographs, journals in which her stories and articles appeared, clippings, papers of other persons, containing manuscripts of Ashley Brown, Charles Hallett, Stark Young, and others, and correspondence of her daughter, Nancy Tate Wood.

General correspondence contains letters of such literary figures as Malcolm Cowley, Ford Madox Ford, Jacques Maritain, Flannery O'Conner, Katherine Anne Porter, and Allen Tate, also letters from the University of Dallas where Miss Gordon taught as writer in residence, editors, literary critics, other authors and friends. Family correspondence holds letters from the Gordons, Meriwethers and other family members dating from the 1860s to letters from her grandchildren in the 1970s. Among the additional materials (Series 8) is a significant number of letters from Gordon to various family members, such as her Aunt "Pidie," spanning six decades.