The Patricia Beck Papers consist of 9.5 linear ft. and date from 1936 to 1986. Types of materials include diaries, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, art slides, and newspaper clippings.

The bulk of the papers dates from 1940 to 1978 and focuses on Beck's writings and her life as it was recorded in her diaries. SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS includes information about Beck's family, pictures of Beck and her family and friends, slides of her artwork, and her extensive group of diaries, dating from 1938 when she was 14 to her death in 1978. Researchers should note that some of the biographical sketches compiled by people other than Beck in the "Biographical and family information" folder contain some inaccurate information. The diaries are arranged chronologically though not all of the diaries are of the same nature. The Daily Reminder books and other one-year daily diaries usually contain brief recordings of a day's events and, except for the very early diaries, pictograms that illustrate her activities. The composition books and red and black bound journals contain longer narratives for fewer dates.

The diaries contain a wealth of information including the movies she saw, books she read, food she ate, letters she wrote and received, telephone calls she made and received, and her financial information. She recorded her daily moods and occasionally her dreams. Many diaries contain newspaper clippings, letters, notes, and other items that Beck inserted between the pages. Some of these items have been removed to a separate folder located after the corresponding diary. Because Beck based many of her writings on her own life and the Bennington area, some of her notes in SERIES III. WRITINGS also contain biographical information.

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE is divided into two subseries, Personal and Professional. The Personal correspondence from family and friends includes such notables as: Frank Capra, Erich and Henny Fromm, Dorothy and Granville Hicks, Bernard and Ann Malamud, Karl Polanyi, and Allan and Barbara Seager. The correspondence provides further insight into Beck's personal relationships, revealing that those relationships that began on a professional basis often grew to become much more. The correspondence with Bernard Malamud includes only brief discussions of her writing and the correspondence with other notables pertains largely to Beck's friendships with them. Professional correspondence includes rejection letters, with which Beck had once lined her walls, and letters with the magazine Yankee and the Fox Chase Agency.

SERIES III. WRITINGS is divided into four subseries, Book manuscripts, Poetry, Short stories, and Notes. Beck wrote two semi-autobiographical novels, Like Gone and Under the Shadow of a War, but neither was published as was none of her poetry. Only a few of her short stories were ever published and these are listed first in Short stories. Her unpublished stories are listed alphabetically. Beck's loose notes for her writings are arranged chronologically and her notebooks are arranged by title or type of notes.

This collection is organized into three series:

• I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
• II. CORRESPONDENCE
• III. WRITINGS
• OVERSIZE MATERIALS