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Samuel Roth (1893-1974)—writer, publisher, entrepreneur, and all-around schemer—is best known for publishing unauthorized excerpts of James Joyce's Ulysses in the United States, and for being the plaintiff in a landmark case before the United States Supreme Court that redefined what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the First Amendment. The Samuel Roth Papers contain annotated books, manuscripts, court documents, business records, copyright statements, unpublished typescripts (by Roth and others), publishing advertisements and materials, as well as correspondence.

The majority of the Sighle Kennedy Papers consists of notes, research materials and drafts related to Kennedy's scholarly work on Samuel Beckett's novels, plays, and poetry. Most of this material was produced or gathered from the 1970s–1990s, during which Kennedy worked as a professor in the English department at Hunter College in New York City. The Papers contain correspondence between Kennedy and Beckett from 1967-1988, as well as two autograph letters from Beckett to his relative Harry Sinclair, one written in 1937 and one in 1938. The correspondence also includes letters Kennedy wrote to and received from other Beckett scholars. A small number of audio recordings (including gramophone records from the 1920s), several prints, including four by the Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats, and a number of annotated books complete this collection.