The collection consists of selected correspondence and works of Ghiselin. The correspondence is predominately with Allen Tate and Ellis Foote, but also includes letters from John Ciardi, John Peale Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, John Crowe Ransom, Theodore Roethke, Robert Penn Warren, Thornton Wilder, and others. His works are represented by typescripts, proofs, galleys, Italian translations, phonograph records, and related correspondence for Country of the Minotaur (1970), a book of poetry, and notes and typescripts for "The Burden of Proof," Ghiselin's review of John L. Stewart's The Burden of Time: The Fugitives and Agrarians (1965) for the "Sewanee Review." A heavily annotated copy of the published book is also included.

In addition there is Ghiselin's translation from Italian into English of an article by Francesco Mei entitled "Culture and Technique in Tate," (1970), the typescript of an essay, "The Unliteral Imagination" by Allen Tate, a script for the production of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, and numerous poems by Ellis Foote included in his correspondence.