The Ray B. West drafts consist of the notes, drafts, and revisions which went into the writing of Kingdom of the Saints. The drafts have been assembled in consecutive order, as far as that could be determined.

boxes two through six contain successive drafts of the book and some of these are not complete. The final draft and published version is contained in box six. The remaining box (1) contains bibliographies, correspondence, and miscellaneous notes.

In the summer of 1954, Ray B. West was awarded a fellowship from the Newberry Library in Chicago and began his research for the book Kingdom of the Saints. The completed version was published by the Viking Press in 1957.