Musical Scores for Ancestral Voices and Soldier Boy, Soldier, undated

Biographical materials include Forrest's curriculum vitae and a chronology of his life and works (box 1, folder 1), a photocopy of pages from the family bible listing significant birthdays and events (box 1, folder 2), awards and certificates, photocopies of pages from Aitchpe, his Hyde Park High School yearbook, newspaper clippings, and correspondence (relating mostly to his work at Northwestern).

The Northwestern University sub-series is comprised mostly of class notes and research notes for his classes and writings. These notes are in no particular order. There are also folders relating to his teaching and as head of the Department of African American studies. The records within these three folders are arranged chronologically.

The majority of the folders in the Books and Publications sub-series contain manuscripts, galley and page proofs of his first four novels (There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, (incorporating material originally published under the title Sub-Rosa), The Bloodworth Orphans, Two Wings to Veil My Face, and Divine Days). Of particular interest is the forward to Two Wings to Veil My Face, signed by Toni Morrison (box 4, folder 3). This sub-series also includes articles by and about Forrest, the libretto to the opera Soldier, Boy Soldier, reviews of Forrest's books, and the manuscript for Leon Forrest, Introduction, and Interpretation, a collection of literary critiques of Forrest's work edited by his friend John C. Cawelti. Box 8 contains the undated musical scores forAncestral Voices and Soldier Boy, Soldier with music by composer T. J. Anderson and words by Forrest.

An addition is chiefly related to the posthumously-published novel Meteor in the madhouse.