Papers documenting twentieth-century American author and former Jesuit John L'Heureux through his correspondence, journals, literary manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, and publishing proofs.

The majority of L'Heureux's papers focus on his creative writing, both published and unpublished. Included are versions of his novels and short stories from first draft through proof, and materials documenting the editing and publishing process such as contracts, fan mail, publisher and agent correspondence, reviews, and royalty statements.

L'Heureux began his writing career, as a poet, while a member of the Society of Jesus, and papers from this era contain drafts of his poems and publishing materials for three of his four books of poetry. They also include correspondence with other Jesuits, journals, photographs, student work, and English translations of the Catholic Mass, in addition to his contentious article on "The New American Jesuits" for the Atlantic Monthly, and response to his memoir, Picnic in Babylon.

L'Heureux's collected correspondence from his post-Jesuit years chronicles his friendships with other writers, many of them former students from Stanford University. In the letters, he gives critical feedback, professional support, and details of his efforts to balance the demands of teaching and writing. Much of the longer-term correspondence evolves to include his wife Joan as well.

A smaller portion of the papers are dedicated to L'Heureux's thirty years at Stanford University as a professor of creative writing and director of the Creative Writing Program (CWP). He retained a selected set of his administrative records that summarize the history of that program and his impacts on it.