Catharine Maria Sedgwick's personal papers provide a revealing look into her career as a writer, as well as her personal observations and feelings. Since the majority of the letters here were written to Katherine Sedgwick Minot, a relative to whom she felt a close bond, much of the material is unusually candid in nature.

The documents, drawn from three collections, offer an account of her progress on various novels and her dealings with publishers. There are also fragments of both her published and unpublished works (such as part of an unfinished manuscript concerning slaves).