The John Gassner Papers consist of correspondence, teaching files, and miscellaneous clippings relating to Gassner's activities as a professor of playwriting at Yale University.
The majority of the alphabetically arranged correspondence consists of letters from prospective, current, and former students to whom Gassner provided professional advice and direction. Numerous correspondents requested Gassner's critical opinion of their plays; however, none of the scripts which apparently accompanied letters is within the collection. Correspondence with F. Curtis Canfield and Edward Cole pertains to the curriculum, students, theatrical production, and administrative activities of the Yale School of Drama. Additional correspondents include professional colleagues, literary agents, and aspiring playwrights.
Course syllabi and examinations, critiques of student scripts, an outline of the National Theater Conference's National Appraisal of the American Theater Project, and miscellaneous printed material form the remainder fo the collection.