Described are monomer compositions containing aspartic acid and other comonomers, such as monosodium aspartate, and methods for their production. The monomer compositions can be polymerized, particularly by thermal polymerization, to obtain useful and novel imide-containing polyamino acids, i.e., copolymers containing polymerized aspartate units and succinimide units. The invention is also directed to the resulting polymeric materials, their methods of production, and their uses and the derivatized polymeric materials by nucleophilic or electrophilic addition. Uses of the imide-containing polyamino acids include, for example, dispersants in detergents and cleansers, water-treatment chemicals as anti-scalants and corrosion inhibitors, personal-care additives for softening and moisturizing, and many others.