The Mark Sidney Steadman Jr. Papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, gallies, photographs, sketches, and teacher evaluations. Over half the collection consists of manuscripts of essays, novels, poems, short stories, and other literary works by Steadman. The collection spans the years 1946-2002, with bulk years 1955-1990. This collection has been arranged into four series: correspondence, personal, works, and oversize.

Correspondents in the collection include a variety of editors amd publishers including Lois Wallace, Thomas Wallace, and Jane Hill; fellow writers and English professors Angela Elam, Charles Israel,John Yount and Hank Nuwer; and members of Steadman's family. They discuss their writting projects, work, family matters and in the case of Steadman life at Clemson. Steadman kept copies of some of the letters he wrote so this correspondence gives insight into his life as a writer and professor.

Personal materials include information about teaching at the American University in Cairo, clippings documenting his career, information about the Clemson Funeral Society, documentation about building his home, publisher's sales catalogs that featured his book, and information about the W. R. Smith Publishing Company at which Steadman worked writing advertising copy from 1953-1955. Student evaluations of Steadman’s classes and various student assignments in his creative writing classes are restricted during the lifetime of the students. Some financial papers documenting his life are restricted during his life.

The works series includes copies of Steadman’s thesis and dissertation, miscellaneous sketches, and a variety of drafts of his essays, poems, novels, screen plays, and short stories. During the course of his career, Steadman wrote a number of short stories that were incorporated into his novels McAfee County: A Chronicle (1971), A Lion's Share (1975), Angel Child: A Novel (1987), and Bang-Up Season: A Novel (1990). Many of the original manuscripts are on acidic paper and have been photocopied but the originals have been retained.