The series contains Leon Edel's correspondence, with the majority before 1989. The correspondence ranges from personal to professional and literary, with letters from friends, acquaintances, scholars, authors, and publishers, such as Harvard University Press. Files that are significant either because of the correspondent or due to the extent of the correspondence include W. W. Norton, Anais Nin, Hannah Arendt, E. M. Forster, H. Montgomery Hyde, Geoffrey Keynes, and Allen Ginsberg. Many of the letters represent Edel's ongoing work to acquire copies of Henry James's correspondence and seek out information about the author from his contemporaries. Also includes a number of letters related to various lectures given during the 1960s and 1970s.