The papers of Philip Milton Roth (1933- ) span the years 1938-2001, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1960-1999. The collection represents Roth's literary career during the twentieth century and is organized in the following series: Correspondence File, Writings File, Miscellany, Restricted, and Oversize.

The Correspondence File primarily contains letters received with a few copies of Roth's replies. The list of correspondents consists chiefly of writers, editors, publishers, poets, artists, academics, actors, playwrights, and literary agents. Many letters include commentaries regarding drafts of Roth's work and illustrate his practice of circulating early versions for review by other writers, friends, and editors. Letters from editors and agents, including Aaron Asher, Candida Donadio, Tom Maschler, George Starbuck, and Roger W. Straus, Jr., reveal Roth's involvement in the editorial and production process of his work. Correspondents also write about their own work and activities, other writers, literary issues, political and social issues, family, and mutual friends. Although most correspondents are American, letters from English writers, actors, and others reflect Roth's intermittent work and residence in London. English correspondents include actress Claire Bloom, to whom Roth was married, Joan Aiken, Angela Carter, Hermione Lee, and Harold Pinter.

Letters in both the Correspondence and the Writings files document the various reactions evoked by Roth's writings examining and depicting the evolving condition of the Jewish community in the United States. Other Jewish writers represented include Saul Bellow, Yaël Dayan, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and Bernard Malamud. Roth's annual retreats to the Yaddo Artist's Colony in the 1960s and 1970s are reflected in letters from Elizabeth Ames, Pauline Hanson, and Curtis Harnack. Roth founded and was general editor of the Writers from the Other Europe series for Penguin Books in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting and publishing writers from Eastern and Central Europe, such as Ivan Klíma, Milan Kundera, Norman Manea, and Josef Škvorecký whose letters are among Roth's correspondence.

Other individuals represented in the Correspondence File include James Atlas, R. S. Baker, Anita Brookner, Robert Sanford Brustein, R. V. Cassill, Blair Clark, Joanna Rostropowicz Clark, Joel Conarroe, Robert Crichton, Judith Dunford, Paul Engle, Blair Fuller, Veronica Geng, Philip Grausman, Philip Guston, Michael Herr, L. Rust Hills, Edward Hoagland, Susan Jacoby, R. B. Kitaj, Alan Lelchuk, Alison Lurie, Janet Malcolm, Jerre Gerlando Mangione, Mildred Martin, Jonathan Evan Maslow, Charlotte Maurer, Robert E. Maurer, Jack Miles, Ross Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Cynthia Ozick, David Plante, Deborah Rogers, Thomas Rogers, Herman Schneider, Howard Stein, Richard G. Stern, William Styron, Judith Thurman, Melvin Marvin Tumin, John Updike, Fredrica Wagman, and John Wheatcroft.

The Writings File contains material related to Roth's books, essays, stories, reviews, plays, screenplays, letters to editors, and transcripts of interviews and discussions. The books file constitutes the bulk of the material and includes working texts from various stages of production for all of Roth's fiction and nonfiction books published before 2000, including and . Most files include original typed versions, numerous drafts, and final galleys and proofs. Extensive handwritten annotations and notes by Roth and his editors appear throughout. Drafts and galleys are organized according to Roth's identifying notes, and correspondence from editors and readers, notes, and research material are filed under the pertinent book title. The files reveal the creative development of a work from its first draft through final publication, including title changes, rewrites, chapters dropped or added, and responses to editorial comments. Material pertaining to magazine excerpts or stage and screen adaptations is filed with the appropriate book. Three uncompleted or abandoned works, “Distracted and Unblessed,” “The Last Jew,” and “The Nice Jewish Boy; or, A Masochistic Extravaganza,” are also contained in the books file.

Essays, reviews, and stories are grouped together in the Writings File. Most titles include annotated typed drafts, notes, and galleys. Unpublished and unproduced play scripts and screenplays are also in the Writings File, including “A Coffin in Egypt,” “Buried Alive,” and “The Nice Jewish Boy.” The file contains Larry Arrick's adaptation of three Roth stories and Roth's revised version of Anton Chekov's for a production featuring Claire Bloom. An adaptation of for television is filed with other material related to this book. Published copies and transcripts of interviews with and by Roth, letters to editors, and acceptance speeches are also contained in the Writings File. The Miscellany series contains appointment books, clippings documenting Roth's career, and photographs.