This collection documents the life and literary pursuits of the librarian Philipp Flesch. Prominent subjects of the papers include Flesch's experiences as a recent immigrant and his personal views as expressed through his writing. The collection consists of numerous manuscripts, correspondence, clippings, and official papers

Philipp Flesch's life as a recent immigrant during the 1940s can be glimpsed in the papers of every series of this collection. Most noteworthy are the manuscripts of his writing in Series III, of which the majority are unpublished. Among his writing are many poems as well as some essays describing his experiences after his immigration to the United States. These reflect on the cultural changes experienced by refugees from Europe as well as Flesch's own observations on life in New York City. The correspondence of Series II also mentions his life during these years, particularly the hardships he faced as an immigrant. Series I includes an extensive amount of letters of recommendation for Flesch from other individuals while he attempted to secure a teaching position

Flesch's attempts to publish his writing are also well-documented, outside of the examples of his writing in Series III. Series II includes numerous query letters to publishers of books and periodicals regarding the publication of his works. The letters of reference in Series I include some letters for his application to the artists' retreat Yaddo, where Philipp Flesch hoped to work on a book entitled A Popular Philosophy for America; the book proposal for this work will be found in Series III. Series I additionally holds a copy of Flesch's doctoral dissertation on the writer Gerhart Hauptmann

Philipp Flesch was born on March 2, 1896 in Vienna. When he was eighteen, he volunteered for World War I, where he spent four years in the military. He studied German philology and received his Ph.D. in 1922 with a dissertation on Gerhart Hauptmann. From 1928 to 1938 he taught at several schools in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States via Rotterdam, and arrived in New York on December 30, 1939. Unable to find a teaching position, he studied library science at Columbia University and graduated in 1944, eventually securing a position as a cataloger at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also wrote extensively, including the creation of numerous poems, essays and articles, short stories, and a novel; a few of his poems and essays were published

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