The University of South Carolina announced that it has acquired the works of the late crime writer Elmore Leonard, which include more than 450 drafts of manuscripts, short stories, and screenplays, and will feature all forty-five of his novels, among other materials.

The archive does not stop at literary-only materials. In a statement released by the university, the extensive archive will also contain “a few of his Hawaiian shirts and a pair of sneakers.”

Leonard, who lived in Detroit for much of his life and is hailed by many as a master of the crime fiction genre, began his writing career as an advertising writer in 1949, and spent mornings writing Westerns until the genre faded, and he switched to crime fiction. His best-known works include Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre, Freaky Deaky, Rum Punch (which many know as Quentin Tarantino’s film adaptation, Jackie Brown), and works that inspired the television series, Justified. He died in 2013 in his home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, at age 87.

“It is a tremendous archive in its completeness in terms of manuscripts, correspondence, books, and translations,” USC’s Dean of Libraries Tom McNally said. “It has all the materials that Elmore kept, including outlines of how his books were written. The key is that this is a research collection and it will lead to publication of books, articles, and dissertations about Elmore Leonard.”

According to the statement, USC was met with competition from two other major universities who also wanted Leonard’s archives. However, the statement reads that Leonard specifically told his son, Peter Leonard, also a crime writer, that he wanted his papers to go to USC following his death.

“He went to the library and was blown away,” Peter explained, referring to the library’s extensive collections of Ernest Hemingway and crime fiction writer George V. Higgins. “Elmore was a major Hemingway fan. He was the influence that got my dad to write.”

Of the manuscript for Higgins’ novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970), Peter said, “That book set my dad free. It really changed his outlook on writing. George Higgins was free with characters and dialogue. Hemingway and Higgins were the two influences in my father’s life.”

Parts of the collection will be on display to the public through October 2014, and in eighteen months, the full collection will be available to researchers and patrons.