Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

Papers of activist, author, and licensed psychotherapist who is well-known in the field of ecopsychology and as a critic of the predominance of technology in society. Included are correspondence, manuscript material, photographs, serial publications and books.

This collection contains the papers of activist, author, and licensed psychotherapist Chellis Glendinning, a well-known ecopyschologist, anarchist, and bioregionalist. Much of her work concerns the negative impact of modern technology. Included are correspondence, manuscript material, photographs, serial publications and books.

The Correspondence series consists of letters from family, friends, and colleagues from the 1970s through 2008. Also included is a section of letters that focus on Glendinning's books. Newspaper and magazine clippings, flyers and broadsides related to the author's activities may be found in the Ephemera series.

Manuscript Material consists of notes and drafts of lectures, notes and research on a variety of projects, and material related to Glendinning's opera, De Un Lado al Otro, written in 2006 with Cipriano Vigil. Personal photographs and correspondence, make up the Family and Subject Files, which also holds early creative works as well as Glendinning's high school year book.

The Diaries series is made up of twenty of personal journals and diaries covering the years 1955-1978, while the Photographs series contains images of New Mexico, and Glendinning's childhood, family, travel, conferences, and friends.

The audiocassette tapes, compact discs, videotapes, and one DVD in the Audiovisual series document the author's lectures and paper presentations, complemented by several lectures by colleagues. The final two series, Serial Publications and Books, are comprised of issues of journals containing articles by Glendinning and copies of her books Off the Map: an Expedition Deep into Empire and the Global Economy (2002) and Waking Up in the Nuclear Age (1987).

The 2022 accretion consists of newly acquired materials dating largely from 2010-2020.

Naomi Long Madgett was a prominent poet, educator, and editor, recognized for her significant contribution to African-American letters. Since 1972 she organized and operated, single-handedly, Lotus Press, which publishes poetry by African-Americans and others. The collection documents Madgett's career and the operations of Lotus Press, through correspondence, manuscripts (both by Madgett and by authors published by Lotus Press), ephemera, audiovisual material, and photographs. Lotus Press merged with Broadside Press to form Broadside Lotus Press in 2015.

The Naomi Long Madgett Papers document the prominent career of Ms. Madgett as a poet and a teacher, and her operation of Lotus Press, which Madgett ran single-handedly for more than 30 years. Thus, the collection makes a good source of insight both into Madgett's own writing and aesthetic sensibility, and into the cultures of lyric poetry and African-American letters in the latter decades of the 20th Century. The bulk of the material covers the 1980s, the 1990s, and the first few years of the 21st century, with Madgett's activities in the 1970s being represented as well. From the correspondence collected here a vivid picture emerges of Madgett's relationships with some of the authors whose work she published--such as James Emanuel and Gayl Jones--as well as with other authors, such as Gwendolyn Brooks. In addition, correspondence and ephemera evidence the growth of Madgett's own reputation, documenting her many professional activities, awards, and honors over the years. While manuscripts by Madgett herself do not comprise a large part of the collection, the fortunes of one of her most famous poems, "Midway," are documented in detail, and an autobiography (Pilgrim Journey) provides an extensive synthesis by the author of her own influences and career (a section of which has been published by Gale's Contemporary Authors' Autobiography Series). Finally, the collection provides a close look at the daily operation, from its inception, of a small literary press.

The Naomi Long Madgett papers have been arranged into nine series: Personal, Writings, General Correspondence, Workshops and Events, Author Files, Business Records, Ephemera, Photographs, and Audiovisual. Books published by Lotus Press, as well as other books and periodicals from Madgett's library, have been catalogued individually and are shelved by call number in the Special Collections Library. Within the collection, however, much material is available from the production of certain Lotus Press books; see below Writings and Author Files.