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Clifford Odets was an American playwright. He was born in 1906 to Russian and Romanian immigrants. Odets dropped out of high school, striking out on his own to pursue a career in acting. He was a founding member of the Group Theatre in New York that utilized a new technique in acting based on the ideas of Constantin Stanislavski. The Group Theatre was further developed by director Lee Strasberg. Odets was married twice, both to actresses: Luise Rainer and Bette Grayson. The collection consists of his original plays and screenplays, including drafts. These were at one time loaned to Margaret Brenman-Gibson for work on her biography of Odets, which was published in 1981. There is a small section of personal papers that includes clippings, correspondence, ephemera, notes, and his secretary's appointment book.

Margaret Brenman-Gibson was a Harvard professor of Psychiatry. In 1981, she published a biography of American playwright Clifford Odets, entitled Clifford Odets - American Playwright: The Years from 1906-1940. Brenman-Gibson and her husband, William Gibson, also a playwright, lived and worked in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The collection consists of Brenman-Gibson's research files for her work on the Clifford Odets biography. It contains chronological notebooks, which outline each year of Odets' life, as well as correspondence, interviews, and interview transcripts with friends, relatives, and acquaintances of Odets. The collection also contains copies of correspondence, diaries, and notes from Odets. A small portion of the collection consists of personal correspondence between Brenman-Gibson, William Gibson, and Clifford Odets.