The papers of Jay G. Sigmund consist of four linear feet of manuscripts dating from 1911-1975. Arranged alphabetically, within larger groupings of plays, poetry, and short stories, the collection documents his literary career with subject files and correspondence. There are early drafts of his published and unpublished plays, poetry, short stories, and his final work, the novel, Purple Washboards. The collection also includes three of Jay Sigmund's scrapbooks. The correspondence includes letters from: Sherwood Anderson, Marcus Bach, Edmund Blunden, William Robert Boyd, William Braithwaite, Johnson Brigham, Witter Bynner, George Elliston, Don Farran, Arthur Davison Ficke, Charles J. Finger, Norman Foerster, John T. Frederick, James Norman Hall, John Hammill, Harry Hansen, Robinson Jeffers, Raymond Kresensky, Alfred Kreymborg, William F. Leonard, Verne Marshall, H.L. Mencken, Frank Luther Mott, Lewis Mumford, Edward J. O'Brien, Julia Peterkin, Edwin Ford Piper, Herbert Quick, Opie Read, Edward Rowan, George Russell, Carl Sandburg, Lew R. Sarett, Wilbur Schramm, Betty Smith, Henry J. Smith, George Sterling, Jesse H. Stuart, Ruth Suckow, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Vechten.