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Richard Tillinghas is a poet and critic based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is known for his employment of stylistic techniques to explore tracel, history, lanscapes, and the evolution of personal relationships. He was an active in the counterculture movement, and produced several published collections of poetry. Tillinghast claimed that his writings were primarily inspired by everyday experiences, which he interpreted in "an unusual way". In addition to writing, Tillinghast taught at both Harvard and San Quentin Prison, as well as at the University of Michigan. He travelled extensively, and now lives in rural Ireland. The Richard Tillinghast Papers contain materials from throughout Tillinghast's career, including extensive correspondence, manuscripts, and critical pieces. A large section of the collection is dedicated to the scrapbooks and journals spanning many years, and in which Tillinghast details his writing, work, and travels.

The Richard Tillinghast Papers consist of a wide variety of materials from across the length of Tillinghast's career. The collection contains a large amount of correspondence with colleagues, family, friends, publishers, and others involved with his career, a voluminous amount of manuscripts for his many poems, essays, critical pieces, and other writings, and material related to his professional work as a poet and professor as well as his personal life and that of his family. The largest element of the collection is the many manuscripts and drafts of Tillinghast's poems and other published writings, as well as the scrapbook-like journals he kept for many years documenting his travels, work, and writing. The Richard Tillinghast Papers are divided into seven series: Name and Topical, Personal, Professional, Writings and Manuscripts, Journals and Diaries, Clippings and Reviews, and Audiovisual.

The Name and Topical series contains approximately 3.25 linear feet, Boxes 1-4, consisting mainly of correspondence with fellow authors, colleagues, academics, friends, and publishers. Although largely organized by names, a few organizations with which Tillinghast corresponded significantly are included as topics as well. Relevant photographs, clippings, and ephemera are generally kept with related names and topics. The series is arranged alphabetically by name. Each name or topic is given a folder as long as there are at least three letters of correspondence or if the person is of significant status. Names or topics that do not meet these minimum requirements are filed by letter in the alphabet. This series also contains some unidentified correspondence due to illegible signatures on letters.

Tillinghast's largest correspondents include David Freidberg, Rachel Hadas, Donald Hall, Alan Williamson, and Wesleyan University Press, which published several of his books. Other notable correspondents include William Bolcom and Joan Morris, Billy Collins, James Dickey, Annie Dillard, Shelby Foote, George Garrett, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Haas, Seamus Heaney, James Laughlin, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Pinsky, Gary Snyder, Chase Twichell, and Robert Penn Warren.

The Personal series contains approximately 1 linear foot, Boxes 4-5, and includes a variety of materials related to Tillinghast's early life and family. Much of the series consists of correspondence with family members and close personal friends, arranged chronologically. Some correspondence of Tillinghast's family members, especially his grandparents, that dates from before his birth is also included. Among these are a letter to his grandfather A. J. Williford, a prominent public figure in the Memphis area, from Theodore Roosevelt. The series also contains materials from Tillinghast's childhood, and some of his academic work prior to graduate school, especially from his undergraduate days at the University of the South (Sewanee) in Tennessee. More general materials related to his time at Sewanee and at graduate school at Harvard are also included. The series also contains genealogical information and photographs on both Tillinghast's father's and mother's families compiled by relatives, and other miscellaneous personal materials.

The Professional series contains approximately 2 linear feet, Boxes 5-7, and includes materials related to Tillinghast's work both as a professor at the University of Michigan and as a poet and lecturer more generally. The largest part of the series is correspondence, logistical and publicity information, and other material related to Tillinghast's travels around the United States and abroad to conduct poetry readings at college and universities, bookstores, and other locations. This material is arranged by state, and within each state every institution for which there was a significant amount of correspondence or other information is given its own folder(s). Readings which Tillinghast gave in Ireland follow the US states. This series also contains correspondence with many publishers and publications regarding publication of Tillinghast's poems and essays. Because it is with such a wide variety of entities, this correspondene was left together rather than being split in Name and Topical. There is thus some overlap with Name and Topical, as well as correspondence in the Writings and Manuscripts series. Other materials in this series include some teaching materials, material related to projects Tillinghast conducted as a professor, materials on writers' conferences he attended and/or organized, and materials related to his work in Ireland and international travel.

The Writings and Manuscripts series contains approximately 6.75 linear feet, Boxes 7-15, and contains materials from Tillinghast's writings throughout his career. The series contains nine subseries: Poetry, Published Books of Poetry, Novels, Editorial Work, Criticism, Essays, Talks and Lectures, Robert Lowell, and Other.

The Poetry subseries consists largely of manuscripts of Tillinghast's poems from drafts, and revisions made by Tillinghast, which show the development of his work over time. Occasionally, correspondence related to the development of the poems is included as well. Undated manuscripts are grouped together at the end of the series, which also contains manuscripts of unpublished books of poetry and photocopies of published poems. Materials were generally kept together in the groupings in which Tillinghast had arranged them, which means related materials are sometimes dispersed throughout the series. For example, when a large number of copies of poems were placed together, they were placed in a single folder or set of folders. The same is true, though to a lesser degree, for other materials in this series. A limited amount of correspondence appears alongside the manuscripts.

The Published Books of Poetry subseries contains materials related to many of Tilinghast's published works, arranged chronologically by book. The series contains drafts, manuscripts, galleys, copies, signatures, and correspondence with publishers and others. The amount of material for each book varies considerably, and for none is there enough material to show the complete development of the book. It is important to note that the manuscript entitled "They Gambled For Your Clothes" was renamed as "The New Life" before eventually being published. Earlier manuscripts can be found in the Poetry subseries. Many of the individual poems in each book also have files in the Poetry subseries.

The Novels subseries consists of a manuscript for a never-published novel by Tillinghast, as well as drafts and fragments of another unpublished novel or short story.

The Editorial Work subseries contains material related to Tillinghast's service as editor of an edition of the literary magazine Ploughshares, mainly correspondence and manuscripts. Correspondents are arranged alphabetically.

The Criticism subseries consists primarily of book reviews Tillinghast wrote for a wide variety of academic and popular publications, arranged chronologically. Materials include manuscripts and drafts of the reviews and correspondence with publishers and publications. The subseries also includes similar materials on various other works of criticism published in a variety of publications. Publications for which there was not a significant amount of materials are grouped together as "various." The subseries also contains materials of the same nature as those in the Published Books of Poetry subseries for one published book of criticism by Tillinghast.

The Essays subseries contains material similar to that on book reviews in the Criticism subseries, but for essay on literary and travel topics by Tillinghast published in various publications, arranged chronolgoically. A large amount of these essays were travel pieces for the New York Times, as well as a large amount of writing on Irish literature and culture for a number of publications. Folders on many of the travel pieces also contain a variety of tourist materials and other ephemera from the locations about which the essays were written. Those essays for which there were not a large amount of materials are grouped together as "various." Manuscripts and materials related to Tillinghast's Finding Ireland are grouped following the essays, as well as working manuscripts and correspondence related to "The Istanbul Book", an as-yet unpublished book.

The Talks and Lectures subseries contains manuscripts of a few talks and lectures given by Tillinghast.

The Robert Lowell subseries contains all of Tillinghast's writings on Robert Lowell, arranged by type and chronologically therein. Lowell was a mentor to Tillinghast at Harvard and Tillinghast wrote his Ph.D. thesis on Lowell as well as a literary biography of him. Because of the importance of Lowell in Tillinghast's work, these writings are grouped together. This subseries contains book reviews, essays, a lecture, and various Lowell-related clippings and articles.

The Other subseries contains a few other writings and manuscripts by Tillinghast that do not fit into any of the other subseries, such as an interview, a travel guide, and an autobiography Tillinghast provided to Gale.

The Clippings and Reviews series contains approximately 0.25 linear feet, Box 15, of primarily clippings and photocopies of reviews of Tillinghast's published books of poetry, arranged by book. The series also contains miscellaneous clippings about Tillinghast from throughtout his career.

The Journals and Diaries series contains 7 linear feet, Boxes 15-20, of Tillinghast's journals or diaries from throughout his career, arranged chronologically by decade, though the bulk are from the 1990s and 2000s. These books contain a wide variety of materials: notes on and drafts of poems, materials related to teaching, such as notes on grading and class preparation, notes from Tillinghast's extensive travels, clippings and photographs pasted in, and a wide range of other content. The earliest journals, from Tillinghast's undergraduate days, are primarily his class notes. The journals appear to have been kept as "catch-all" books that served a wide variety of professional and personal purposes. They are in a wide variety of physical formats. When the dates of a journal could not be determined, a guess was made based on the other journals near it and on content. Since the dates of journals occasionally overlap, no attempt was made to arrange them chronologically beyond the level of decade. The varied nature of these books mean that they reveal much about Tillinghast's writing, his work, and his life in general in the years in which they were kept.

The Audiovisual series contains1 linear foot, Box 21, of primarily audio and videocassettes, as well as two CDs. Some of the audio and videocassettes are of Tillinghast giving poetry readings or of projects he participated in or coordinated. The bulk of the collection is recordings of class meetings for two classes Tillinghast taught, the Beat Generation and Poets Live, from January to April 1995.