He has been the poetry editor of the New Republic , and is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the William Carlos Williams Award. The papers trace Pinsky's creative and intellectual development, beginning with his years at Stanford. Included are numerous drafts of his poems, manuscripts of the prose, documents from his service as poetry editor for the New Republic , and extensive correspondence with his fellow writers and friends. This series is divided between personal and professional correspondence. Major personal correspondents include such contemporary writers such as David Bromwich, Alan Cheuse, Donald Davie, Digby Diehl, Donald Hall, Robert Haas, Edwin Honig, James McMichael, and John Peck, and C. K. Williams.
Professional correspondence is alphabetized by organization or topic.
Under New Republic are both letters and drafts of poetry submitted to Pinsky. Another large section of professional correspondence consists of Pinsky's files on his poetry readings, arranged by the names of the host institutions. Manuscripts of Pinsky's Sadness and Happiness and An Explanation of America are arranged in order of revision, from the first draft to the final manuscript. And Happiness are listed under various titles as the book progresses, and all copies of poems which have been deleted are to be found following the draft in which they last appeared. The drafts of An Explanation of America are organized according to the internal sections of the book itself.