This series contains a small quantity of family correspondence, memorabilia, membership records, and business papers, but consists primarily of William Lindsay White's career correspondence and materials related to his published works.

Career correspondence includes incoming letters and unsigned copies of White's outgoing letters (subarranged as White's New York files, Emporia files, and Reader's Digest files). Arrangement adheres to original order of the files, thereby retaining the relevance of donor Kathrine White's many interspersed lists of correspondents and her accompanying notes. The New York and Emporia files are subarranged alphabetically by correspondent surname; White's Reader's Digest correspondence (primarily with its founder, DeWitt Wallace) is chronological. Other correspondents of note include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, and writer John Dos Passos.

The subseries for White's writings includes drafts and galley proofs of his books and articles, as well as background material, published reviews, and White's related correspondence with editors, publishers, readers, and subjects of his works.

Kathrine White correspondence and memorabilia which postdate her husband's death are contained in a final subseries within these papers. "WLW" denotes William Lindsay White in the collection description.