Martin Williams preferred to retain his writings in their published form: there are many clipped articles but few manuscript drafts of published materials in his files. Neither did he usually retain correspondence after a project was completed. Nevertheless, the one foot of papers received after his death contains interesting documentation of his dealings with his publishers, and with other critics and scholars. There are also uncompleted and unpublished articles and reviews.

            The files were retained in their original order, with their original file headings. In a few cases, materials or files were added or interpolated, and these additions are marked as such. Periodicals are arranged by title and date: in most cases Williams kept only issues containing his writings or issues in which he had some particular interest. The music, consisting mainly of stock arrangements of Jelly Roll Morton tunes, was collected for an intended project on Morton. The last series consists of  individual articles by Williams, arranged by periodical title.

            Appended is a list of books that were part of the Williams bequest. (His will stipulated that all of  his jazz-related materials should come to the CBMR.) The list serves as a record of the jazz books from his library.