Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Business Records series (2 linear feet is divided into three subseries, Naomi Long Madgett, Lotus Press, and the Hilton-Long Foundation. The bulk of the material in the first subseries consists of correspondence between Madgett and authors or publishers wishing to reprint her work in various scholarly books and anthologies. This correspondence, which is arranged chronologically, may be of interest to researchers wishing a sense of the range and scope of the reception of Madgett's poetry. Permissions correspondence relating to the poem "Midway" is filed separately, since this poem has been reprinted so often in so many different places.

Covering the majority of the Business Records, the Lotus Press subseries documents the operation of the press from its founding to the present, in official documents (e.g., articles of incorporation and by-laws), correspondence of a purely business nature, minutes from the meetings of the board of directors, and monthly financial records (for the 1980s and 1990s). Within the business correspondence researchers will find files of permissions to reprint poems by Lotus Press authors (other than Madgett), as well as voluminous correspondence with the editorial staff at Michigan State University Press. The latter group of letters, which includes royalty statements, documents Madgett's relationship with the university press, which took over distribution of Lotus Press books and publication of the winners of the Naomi Long Madgett Award between 1993 and 1998. Researchers interested in the operation of Lotus Press may also want to look at the Board Meetings files, which contain reports that summarize the annual or monthly activity of the organization and document its evolving goals. Tabulations of expenditures and profits can be found under Financial Data.

The Hilton Long Foundation was a short-lived organization created in the early 1990s by Madgett and others to administer the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award; this administration was eventually placed officially under the aegis of Lotus Press. The documents in this subseries are of an official nature.