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NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from have been donated to the offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants.

The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 鈥淣otes and Ideas鈥� that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College.

鈥淚t鈥檚 staggering,鈥� said Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in an interview. 鈥淗e鈥檚 constantly refining, changing words or phrases here and there. It鈥檚 like he never gives up on trying to perfect the things.鈥�

The cache includes drafts of variations on the lyrics to and 鈥淧utting It Together鈥� from 鈥淪unday in the Park with George鈥� that Sondheim wrote for Barbra Streisand at her request. The collection arrived at the Library in March.

There also are lyrics for a reprise of 鈥淪ide by Side by Side鈥� that never made it into 鈥淐ompany鈥� and 40 pages of lyric sketches for 鈥淎 Little Priest鈥� 鈥� 鈥淚s the politician so oily it鈥檚 served with a doily?鈥� go one of the final lines 鈥� from 鈥淪weeney Todd,鈥� with lists of more than 150 possible professions and types of people who could have been baked into pies written in the margins.

鈥淚t seems like the older he gets, the more sketching there is,鈥� says Horowitz. 鈥淔or the early shows, there may be three boxes of materials or four boxes. By the later shows, it eight or nine boxes. I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 because it became harder for him or because he became more detail-oriented.鈥�

Some surprises in Sondheim's papers

The Library of Congress expects a surge in requests to view the collection when it becomes available this summer. Anyone over 16 with a driver's license or a passport can ask for access to the original pages. It becomes available July 1.

Horowitz, the author of " " and editor for The Sondheim Review, who has taught musical theater history at Georgetown, has been surprised by some of the items.

One of them was a song Sondheim wrote as part of a public TV contest in the early 1970s. The winner wanted the Broadway icon to write a song for his mother's 50th birthday and Horowitz stumbled over their correspondences. 鈥淚 had no idea that existed,鈥� he said.

Horowitz convinced Sondheim to donate his papers to the Library of Congress in 1993 and the composer put it in his will. 鈥淚鈥檇 seen his manuscripts to some degree in his home before, but nothing like the kind of in-depth page after page after page that I鈥檓 doing now.鈥�

Horowitz, who has been processing collections for 34 years, built a friendship with Sondheim and even found his own name a few times in the collection.

"For large collections that I spend a lot of time on, I tend to feel the ghost of that person over my shoulder. But with Sondheim, it鈥檚 the first time I can think of that I鈥檓 processing a collection of someone who I really knew."

A fire and 鈥榓 miracle鈥�

Six of Sondheim鈥檚 musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize (鈥淪unday in the Park鈥�), an Academy Award (for the song 鈥淪ooner or Later鈥� from the film 鈥淒ick Tracy鈥�), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.

The fact that Sondheim had anything to donate to the Library at all is a miracle. He suffered a fire in 1995 that started in his office, just feet from where the collection rested on wooden shelves and in cardboard boxes. But somehow it survived, albeit with some papers suffering scorch marks.

鈥淭here鈥檚 absolutely no reason why the collection should not have gone up in flames. And it is truly the closest I鈥檝e ever seen to a miracle, the fact that they didn鈥檛,鈥� said Horowitz.

The country鈥檚 oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.

It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill. It's not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library.

In his second term, the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a 鈥渨oke鈥� agenda.

The Library of Congress is already home to the collections of several Broadway icons, including Arthur Laurents, Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press