This collection deals primarily with Jane Merchant's death, and constitutes an addition to the Special Collections Library's existing holdings dealing with her life and work.

The Jane Merchant literary manuscript collection contains the copyedited, typewritten manuscripts of eight Merchant publications, both poetry and non-fiction, published by Abingdon Press. Available titles include Blessed Are You, Halfway Up the Sky, The Mercies of God, and Petals of Light.

Kathryn Worth wrote nineteen of the letters and cards in this collection to her publicist and friend Helen Fay. In them, she thanks Fay for her work and her kindness, tells stories about her daughter Josephine, and occasionally refers to her books. One letter, dated February 13, 1949, refuses a visit from Fay due to intense spiritual struggle beyond her inherent shyness. The collection also houses a letter from Esther to Fay dated June 22, 1960.

The Lillian P. Davis Papers, 1958-1974, consist primarily of manuscript copies of short stories, plays, and books that Davis wrote after her retirement in 1948. Prominently represented are A Member of the Jury, The Tennessee Story, and her unpublished autobiography.

The Sarah Ricketts Collection contains materials collected while researching and writing A Window on Eternity, the biography of inspirational poet Jane Merchant, who suffered from the incapacitating disease Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

This collection houses manuscripts, newspaper clippings, correspondence, journals, photographs, legal agreements, and other materials documenting Will Allen Dromgoole's literary work and family.

The Wilma Dykeman and James R. Stokely Jr. Papers contain personal and family related-material, correspondence, research material, manuscripts, and visual media pertaining to the life and works of author and historian Wilma Dykeman and her husband, poet James R. Stokely Jr. The collection spans 1807-2011 with the bulk of the material dating between 1934 and 2007.