Records pertain to the editorial process of THE REAPER, its production, finiancial management, and other miscellaneous business, as well as the literary interests and opinions of its editors and contributing authors. Included is correspondence between the poetry editors Mark Jarman and Robert McDowell; letters received from authors, subscribers, and others; submitted manuscripts; production files for most issues consisting of original contents, paste up, galleys, artwork, related correspondence, and printing flats; grant applications; mailing records; clippings and reviews; and other business records.

The Reaper, a small poetry and fiction magazine founded by Robert McDowell and Mark Jarman, was an important voice in the movement in American poetry known as the New Narrative or the New Formalism, which began in the late seventies. The movement attacked the free verse poetics of autobiographical experiences that the Beats had espoused in the 1950's . The New Formalists argued for a return to meter and rhyme, recognition of the importance of narrative, and the inclusion of public as well as private experience. From Issue #1, published in 1980, to Issue #19/20, the final issue, to be published in 1990 , The Reaper was strongly committed to narrative poetry and published many of the authors working in this new form including Dana Gioia, Rita Dove, Frederick Morgan, Liam Rector, Chris Semansky, Chase TWichell, and Rusty White. In addition, The Reaper published Jarman and McDowell's reviews and critidal essays on modern poetry that prompted reviewers to call it "feisty and iconoclastic."

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