The material in this collection was originally housed in binders in Barney Rosset's New York apartment, and cover his personal and professional endeavors as a radical publisher, intellectual, and overall man of letters. It consists of writings, letters, photographs, interviews, films, catalogs, publishing files related to both Grove Press and Evergreen Review, and extensive biographical information on Rosset. The entire collection has been rehoused into archival quality boxes and folders. Each binder had been labeled, generally with some sort of topical or chronological designation. In most cases the binder labels will be retained as file titles, and the subdivisions within binders have become folders and retained, to a great extent, the titles assigned to them by the creator. In some cases the staff of the RBML altered or elaborated on existing folder titles for general clarity and ease of research. In some cases, the collection contains both original and typed (or transcribed) copies, the latter often taking the form of computer printouts that were originally held in binders marked "Master" or "Master Disk" to indicate their contents were on computer disks. These original binder titles have been kept throughout the finding aid.

The Grove Press Collection consists of production, publication, and marketing materials from the Grove Press Records at Syracuse University, which document the history of the Grove Press in Greenwich Village.

The Leo Hurwitz Collection consists of correspondence and papers (both business and personal), scripts, storyboards, publications and clippings, research materials, financial records, promotional material, interviews, festival materials, film and audio dating from 1910-1992, bulk 1925-1991. The collection covers the whole of Hurwitz’s professional career and to a lesser extent his personal life, but with much overlap in the materials themselves. The collection documents Hurwitz's involvement with many notable figures, including Paul Strand, Elia Kazan, Joris Ivens, Paul Robeson, Ralph Steiner, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henri Langlois, Woody Guthrie, James Blue, and Edwin Rolfe.

Controversial publisher Lyle Stuart (1922-2006) was a self-described "First Amendment fanatic." He founded two publishing companies, Lyle Stuart, Inc. and Barricade Books, and published newsmaking and bestselling books, including The Sensuous Woman and The Anarchist Cookbook. The collection consists of 35 linear feet documenting Lyle Stuart's personal and professional activities, including his prolific correspondence and journalism, and his many lively (and often litigated) personal feuds.