The collection consists of correspondence and writings of Arthur Landis, family papers, and miscellnaeous items of ephemera and artifacts, some realting to Landis's service in the Spanish Civil War.

Series I: Family Files, consists of correspondence (including local postcards) of Arthur Landis's mother, Alice Fries with friends and family as she traveled to small towns across the Midwest and West working variety shows as a singer and dancer. Fries became Alice Landis when she married William N. Landis, Arthur's father. William, also a performer, entered the army in 1920. By 1922 the couple was estranged. Alice then married her stage partner, Richard Yaryan, and changed her name to Alice Yaryan. In the late 1930s Alice sometimes used Alice Harper as a stage name (her father's first name was Harper) when she performed in the duo Harper and King. Also included in this series are: Alice's membership book in the American Guild of Variety Artists, in which dues stamps are pasted; a leather-bound diary kept in 1884 by Harper Fries while traveling in Mexico; posters and playbills, including one listing Alice as "Alice Landis, Dancing De Luxe"; programs from the Works Progress Administration Federal Theater in San Francisco and Los Angeles; contracts for the duo Yaryan and Landis, performing as the "Fast Stepping Man and Maid." The series includes many letters from Art Landis's brother, William H. Landis, to Alice; a letter from William to Alice in 1940 notes that Art Landis had moved to Mexico City, where he "might be able to cash in on his Spanish."

Note: Family photographs from Arthur and Alice's scrapbooks, many of Alice on assorted chorus lines and variety shows, can be found in the Arthur H. Landis Photograph Collection (ALBA Photo 66).

Series II: Correspondence, consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence, mostly from 1965 through 1985, mostly with SCW veterans (including Alva Bessie, Theodore [Ted] Cogswell, Carl Geiser, Steve Nelson, Albert Prago, Al Robbins, Saul Wellman, and Milton Wolff) dealing with matters pertaining to VALB, to Landis's books, to various writing and film projects, and to politics. What began as a letter from Landis seeking fellow veteran Cogswell's help in getting published (Cogswell was a science fiction writer and an officer of the Science Fiction Writers of America) blossomed into a long friendship in which the two read, critiqued, and collaborated on each other's work. Carl Geiser encloses in one letter a detailed memo prepared for the Prisoner Historical Committee of VALB, in which he reports his findings for writing a history of the Americans taken prisoner during the SCW. The file "General Correspondence" includes the enclosure in a letter to Landis of a Bill prepared for Congress seeking veterans' rights for the SCW volunteers.

Series III: Subject Files. This series documents a publishing venture with Manny Harriman, Camelot Publishing. It also includes contracts and correspondence with DAW Books, publishers of Landis's science fiction writings; an issue of Coven 13, published by Landis, and submissions of poetry, art, and stories to the magazine; book jackets for his published works; correspondence with Ring Lardner, Jr. requesting blurbs for Landis's books; and a typescript copy of "The Volunteers," a screenplay by Lardner about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Among the Spanish Civil War-era documents and ephemera are Landis's carnet militar (military passbook) for the International Brigades; a sign-up sheet collecting "pesetas for a fiesta," in Christmas of 1937; certificates of commendation in Spanish issued circa 1938 to Evelyn Hutchins Rahman, Wilhelm Werner, and Philip Detlo; the "Ocean Times," the on-board paper of the R.M.S. Ausonia, on which Landis returned from the War; and postcards of Lincoln Brigade members Yale Stuart and Sam Spiller, among others. VALB materials include meeting minutes, general mailings to members, and payment agreements for Landis's writings; marked-up drafts of the VALB Constitution; and an extended correspondence in the mid-1970s debating an unauthorized translation into Russian of an essay written by Landis for VALB.

Series IV: Writings. Landis's nonfiction focuses mainly on the U.S. volunteers' participation in the Spanish Civil War; his fiction and teleplays are largely fantasy and science fiction. Files relating to his writings on Abraham Lincoln Brigade include correspondence, research material, and notes sketching out the major battles in which Brigade members participated; notes and correspondence on the audiotaping of veterans; and typescripts. Files relating to Spain! The Unfinished Revolutioninclude correspondence and reviews. The series also includes aryicles, book reviews, letters to the editor, and a screenplay, "The Volunteer (The Class of '37)", about the Lincoln Brigade. Fiction includes typescripts for novels Little Wars of the Omega Quadrant, A Path of Moonstones, and Roland.

Series V: Artifacts/Ephemera consists of two Spanish Civil War commemorative medals awarded to Landis in the 1960s; a pocket mileage converter; shoe taps and a banjo string, mementos kept by Alice Fries; and sheet music with vaudeville songs, including handwritten scores composed by Richard Yaryan.