Letters to a Circle of Friends 1933-1962: Thirty Years of Friendship, circa 1963-1972

The series consists of materials Wescott assembled in 35 three-ring binders. Four binders (rehoused in boxes 1 and 2) contained reviews of and notes by Wescott and others about Katherine Anne Porter's fiction; Wescott's articles about Katherine Anne Porter's life and her writing of Ship of Fools; research notes; a transcript of Katherine Anne Porter's appearance on The Open Mind, an NBC television program that aired May 13, 1962; time lines of Katherine Anne Porter's life; Wescott's key for the manuscript; his editing concerns and questions about Katherine Anne Porter's life; and notes for his speech at Katherine Anne Porter's birthday celebration at the University of Maryland on May 15, 1968. These notes and research materials, presumably made in advance of the writing of the book, have been placed at the beginning of the series.

The remaining 31 binders housed four drafts of Wescott's planned edition of letters. These drafts (rehoused in boxes 3-26) are arranged in chronological order based on Isabel Bayley's December 17, 1992, letter to the University of Maryland's Director of Libraries, Dr. H. Joanne Harrar. It was impossible to determine whether the creation of the binders labelled "Letters" preceded those labelled "Porter-Wescott-Wheeler Letters." However, the "Letters" version was placed before that of the "Porter-Wescott-Wheeler Letters" when the collection was processed. It is clear, because of subsequent changes in the scope of the project, that "K.A.P. Penultimate" and "The Selected Letters of Katherine Anne Porter" are successive drafts.

Four additional folders of materials removed from the binders by Wescott that include transcriptions, notes, publication notes, and keys to codes for the manuscript were housed in box 27 and placed after Wescott's final draft.