This collection consists of publishing and administrative records of the British publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson that document its operations as a publishing company from 1948 to 1991 and as an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group from 1992 to 2012. The earliest records date from Weidenfeld & Nicolson's foundation in the late 1940s, though the bulk of the material is from the 1960s on. Publication files comprise the vast majority of the collection and include editorial correspondence, legal and financial documents, and production files related to specific authors and publications. These files are largely organized and titled by author name and/or book title. The remainder of the records are administrative files that primarily consist of general correspondence, including with editors, translators, proofreaders, and other publishing companies; internal meeting minutes and communications within and between departments; legal and financial documents; and records related to sales, distribution, publicity, and the day-to-day operations of the firm.

Notable publication files include materials related to James D. Watson's The Double Helix (1968), as well as files on works by Norman Mailer, Margaret Drabble, Joan Didion, A.J. Ayer, Edna O'Brien, Harold Wilson, Eric Ambler, John Berger, Saul Bellow, and others. While the records contain material about the publication of several other works by Vladimir Nabokov, the files related to Weidenfeld & Nicolson's 1959 publication of Lolita are limited to post-publication correspondence regarding permissions.

Most of the description was provided by the dealer and generally reflects the original folder titles when titles were present.