James L. White's Papers consist almost entirely of his journals and drafts of poetry and prose. The collection forms a single series, arranged by format: interview, journals, poetry, prose, and notes, each arranged chronologically. The journals form the bulk of the collection, and contain photographs and other documents as pasted inserts. White sanitized his papers prior to his death, and they have been re-arranged several times since his death. During the course of these re-arrangements, all loose documents were removed from the journals; these materials are now filed with the journals, but their precise context has been lost. Other materials include a transcript of an interview with White; drafts of his poetry, in particular of his final work, The Salt Ecstasies; two audiocassettes with comments on The Salt Ecstasies by Tess Gallagher; a small amount of prose; and notes on the writings of others.