The fonds consists of correspondence, revisions, drafts, notes, theses materials, reviews, photographs and negatives pertaining to Messengers personal life, education, career, research and personal interests and the various publications that he was associated with. The fonds also includes game boards, notes, drafts and original word puzzles. Finally, the fonds contains the Ann Parshall Messenger sous-fonds.

Fonds consists of original versions of manuscripts and working records. Included are manuscripts, edited and marked for printing, typescript, editorials, articles, poems and book reviews of Canadian Literature, Issues #73 - #179, 1977-2003. Also included are correspondence files, 1975-1993. These latter files contain letters from many well-known Canadian writers and poets. Records from the pre-1977 period will be found at Queen's University Archives interspersed with other correspondence in the George Meredith Woodcock manuscript collection.