Letters and notes (ca. 127) : Mexico City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Jacksonville Beach, Houston, Manhattan Beach, Trinidad (California), London, and New York, 121 of which are to Candida Donadio and 6 to other recipients, 1963-1983.

Throughout the 1960s Pynchon wrote frequently to Donadio (usually weekly, but sometimes more often), detailing progress on his work, recommending authors, commenting on politics and current fiction, declining or accepting writing assignments, and often pleading for privacy. Most letters are one or two pages long, typed and single-spaced, some with handwritten additions. The correspondence begins with discussions of royalties and reprints of V., covers the composition and publication of The Crying of Lot 49, and ends with Pynchon doing research for Mason & Dixon.