All areas of American studies, including our country's rich cultural and literary legacy, are reflected in the Library's manuscript holdings. Numerous collections document women's contributions to American literature and journalism. These include collections of papers that women generated as well as the papers of their male colleagues, editors, critics, and publishers. Most of these collections include drafts of literary manuscripts, research notes, transcripts of interviews, and other artifacts of the trade that illustrate the evolution of literary styles, genres, and themes. In addition, the best collections also contain rich correspondence files that reveal aspects of the writer's personality and reflect the cultural and political world in which she lived.

The following "Literature & Journalism" collections are highlighted in these sections of the guide:

• Novelists
• Playwrights
• Poets
• Federal & Private Literary Patrons
• White House Journalists
• New York Herald-Tribune
• Washington Post
• Foreign Correspondents
• Editors, Publishers, & Others