Collection of correspondence from friends and fellow writers, mostly poets, editors and critics, discussing poetry, literary journals in Australia, personal news. Also copies of poems enclosed with letters or included in them. The earliest letter is dated 31 Nov. 1933. The great bulk of letters was written in the 1960s and 1970s. In all there are over 900 letters and a large number of unsorted postcard communications. The collection also includes some of Gwen Harwood's outgoing correspondence, and mss of her poems, with some biographical material and photographs. Correspondents include: Bruce Beaver; Peter Bennie; John Beston; Kevin Bowden; Vincent Buckley; Nancy Cato; Alexander Craig; Margaret Diesendorf; R.D. Fitzgerald; Frank Green; Rodney Hall; Rex Hobcroft; A.D. Hope; Evan Jones; Frank Kellaway; James McAuley; Roger McDonald; James Penberthy; Craig Powell; Thomas Riddell; Keith Russell; Thomas Shapcott; Larry Sitsky; Vivian Smith; Norman Talbot. Includes folder of letters, with some poems, to Ann Jennings, 1959-1988. There are also some photographs and audio recordings.

Letters from Gwen Harwood and her husband, F.W. Harwood, to Alison Hoddinott and her husband W.G. Hoddinott. Includes "Sappho cards", parodies of other Australian poets, accounts of Gwen Harwood's first meetings with James McAuley and A.D. Hope, a full account of the Walter Lehmann Bulletin hoax, and manuscript poems. Also typescript for "The lion's bride", dream book, and Sappho cards to Thea Goodwin. Alison Hoddinott's book, Blessed city : the letters of Gwen Harwood to Thomas Riddell January to September 1943 was awarded the Age Book of the Year in 1990.