Letters from Joseph Kirkland to his wife and family, filled with fatherly advice, and detailing his life in Chicago while they are abroad. They cover such topics as building construction, social events, and the progress of composing and publishing his novels. There are letters from his wife and children and several between relatives. There are also copies of transcriptions of twenty letters Kirkland wrote to Hamlin Garland in 1887 and 1888, in which Kirkland discusses Zury and gives Garland advice about writing.