The Sally Miller Gearhart papers consist of personal and professional correspondence, as well as fan mail. The majority of the correspondence is professional, dealing with Gearhart's work as a writer and activist. These include letters dealing with the publishing, editing, and response to Gearhart's literary works, as well as letters pertaining to her political activism, specifically in the area of gay rights. The section of fan mail will be useful to those interested in correspondence relating to her book The wanderground. Finally, the professional correspondence includes letters relating to the documentary The times of Harvey Milk. The collection also contains a small amount of papers dealing with Gearhart's academic work. These papers, written by Gearhart and others, are relevant to researchers interested in Gearhart's role as an academic, both as a writer and a professor of women's studies. The most extensive part of the collection, and perhaps the most significant, is that of Gearhart's literary works, including several drafts of The wanderground. This novel will be useful to researchers of feminist lesbian politics, utopias, and literature. In addition, the collection contains several short stories and essays. Gearhart's essays are politically themed and deal with such topics as feminism, feminist rhetoric, lesbianism, gay rights, utopias, and animal rights. The collection also includes other literary works such as plays and speeches, as well as cartoons, newsclippings, photographs, video and audio recordings, and posters.
