Consists of the records the Quarterly Review of Literature (QRL). An independent magazine, its editors originally published poetry, fiction, reviews, articles, and criticism of known and emerging writers. In 1948, QRL began focusing primarily on poetry, fiction, and plays, before switching solely to the publication of whole volumes of modern poetry in 1978 with the launching of the QRL Poetry Series. Theodore Weiss was professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University from 1967 to 1987.

Included in the collection are correspondence files with most of the magazine's contributors, such as Louise Bogan, Clarence Brown, Robert Coover, e. e. cummings, Roger Hecht, Jane Hirshfield, Edmund Keeley, Robert Lowell, William Meredith, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Allen Tate, William Carlos Williams, James Wright, and Paul De Man. Also present are the QRL issue files containing almost complete files (1943-1999) of many of the manuscripts submitted for publication (with the exception of a few issues from 1944, 1945, 1974-1977, and 1981). Some of these manuscripts have author's corrections, such as Ralph Ellison's manuscripts for his posthumously published novel, Juneteenth (Vol. XIII). Other Ellison materials are present for "The Roof, the Steeple and the People," (Vol. X, No. 1/2-3) and "Night-Talk," (Vol. XVI). In addition, the collection also includes 11 magnetic audiotapes with readings of plays, including one, in Russian, with the voice of Boris Pasternak.

In addition to the QRL archives, there are manuscripts of Theodore Weiss's own papers, and manuscripts or corrected proofs for his works of poetry including The Catch (1951), Gunsight (1962), Fireweeds (1976), Recoveries (1982), and From Princeton One Autumn Afternoon: Collected Poems 1950-1986 (1987).