These more than 30 articles span the years from 1961-1980 while David Mumford was an active researcher in the area of algebraic geometry. While Volume I contained the papers on classification of varieties and moduli spaces, Volume II contains all other papers in algebraic geomtetry, such as Mumford's paper with Pierre Deligne, The Irreducibility of the space of curves of given genus (1969). Mumford's correspondence of the years 1958 to 1986 with Alexander Grothendieck is also included.

From the reviews of Volume II:

“Selected Papers Volume II collects twenty-nine articles by Mumford, along with four previously unpublished pieces and dozens of letters between Mumford and Grothendieck. … this book the same way I felt about the first volume: this is a book that most algebraic geometers – and all libraries – will not want to do without.” (Darren Glass, The Mathematical Association of America, October, 2010)