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Papers of Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930), an American mystery and detective short story writer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The bulk of the materials date from 1850 to 1929 and primarily consist of Melville Davisson Post's personal and business letters and family financial and legal papers. Business letters mainly document the process of soliciting or accepting and then publishing Post's stories. Financial papers pertain to Post's personal finances in the 1920s, and legal documents from the 18th and early 19th century relate to several members of the Post and Davisson families. Collection also contains a manuscript and typescript draft of the story "The Hole in the Glass" (The Bradmoor Murder, 1929); a biography of Melville Post by Charles Norton; and several black-and-white photographs of Templemoor, Post's childhood home.

Correspondence of writer Melville Davisson Post with Louis E. Schrader, a Wheeling court reporter who edited, typed, and often forwarded Post's manuscripts to the publisher. These letters are primarily instructions for Schrader and concern Post's legal writings as well as his detective stories.

These are letters between Post and publishers Edward J. Clode and W. G. Chapman and are concerned with the serial rights to "The Corrector of Destinies."

Manuscripts of short stories and essays of Melville D. Post, some of which were published between 1920 and 1929 in the Review of Reviews, Everybody's, and the American Magazine. Collection also includes World War I poster texts and articles on various subjects by Melville D. Post; also, two letters. See processing notes for list of titles.