The collection consists primarily of Cortázar's prose and poetry manuscripts, with the poetry constituting the largest portion of the collection and some of his very early writings as evidenced by the notebook written at the age of 12 (1927). The prose includes both fiction and non-fiction writings, Spanish translations of Jean Cocteau's poetry (1947?) and lecture notes from two courses, one at Universidad de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina (1945), and the other at University of California, Berkeley (1980). These papers reflect Cortázar's multilingualism; for example, the title is not always indicative of the content language. While most of the manuscripts are unpublished, there exist several works (complete unless otherwise indicated) that were published, such as Adiós, Robinson y otras piezas breves (1995) [two short plays], Los autonautas de la cosmopista: O, un viaje atemporal París- Marsella (1983), Diario de Andrés Fava (1995), El examen (1986), Pameos y meopas (1971) [selected poems], Rayuela (1963) [notes and short manuscript excerpts], and Teoría del túnel (1947).

Futhermore, the papers contain a small selection of quotations that Cortázar collected from the works of others; notebooks that include an assortment of prose, poetry and notes; and a small selection of correspondence.

The majority of material in this collection is undated. Unless otherwise indicated, all manuscripts described in the contents list are one page in length.