The collection contains typed manuscripts and/or galley proofs of eight of Bonner's novels, including Amanda, Ambassador Extraordinary, Art of Llewellyn Jones, "Good-bye, Come Again" (unpublished), Excelsior, "Malianche (unpublished)", SPQR, and With Both Eyes Open, two collections of short stories, and one play, Dangerous Medicine. Eight of his personal diaries and notebooks are also included in the collection.

Correspondence consists of letters from family, friends, and some notable literary figures, such as Samuel Hopkins Adams, Bernard Berenson, Noel Coward, Edna Ferber, Arthur Krock, Christopher La Farge, Alfred Lunt, John Phillips Marquand, Edward A. Newton, Eugene O'Neill, Robert E. Sherwood, Rebecca West, H. G. Wells, and Alexander Woolcott. There is also editorial correspondence with Charles Scribner & Sons (New York) and Curtis Brown & Co (London). Six scrapbooks, each one devoted to one of Bonner's novels, contain newspaper clippings, letters of appreciation, and fan mail. Also found in the collection are correspondence and other material related to his military career (1917-1919, 1941-1955) and his service with the Department of State, Division of Foreign Services (1946-1952), in Rome and Paris.

A later addition to the collection is the papers of Paul Hyde Bonner, Jr., who was a literary agent to his father. This consists of correspondence between the Bonners and the son and the son's correspondence with various publishing houses and literary agencies in the United States and abroad.