Literary Stamp Collecting

Here is an image of a stamp depicting Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794), French playwright, novelist, poet and fabulist, and a scene from one of Florian's pastorals, Estelle et Némorin (1788), designed by French illustrator Maurice George-Élie Lalau (1881-1961), engraved by Claude Hertenberger, and issued by France on April 2, 1955 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Florian's birth, Scott No. 765, Y&T No. 1021.

- nethryk

It is an interesting topic with all sorts of sub-categories possible. I took a quick look through Canadian stamps and if I limit myself to stamps showing the author rather than a famous character (e.g. Lucy Maude Montgomery shows the character, Anne of Green Gables, rather than the author. Similarily, Robert Service illustrates "The Cremation of Sam Magee") there are actually very few.

I submit a favorite of mine, Stephen Leacock.




And then there is a sub-category. Poets would make a good field all of its own. Here is a Canadian author famous for a single poem. John McCrae.

Stephen Leacock is one of my all time favourites. My wife and I, on a New Years Day drive earlier this month, stumbled onto the churchyard where he is buried. Were able to pay our respects.

I suppose our American cousins have produced one or two passable authors and poets. Here's a few.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright, probably best known for his masterpiece novel, Fathers and Sons (1862), but most beloved (including by me) for his wonderful collection of short stories, Sketches from a Hunter's Album (first edition published in 1852). Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Turgenev, designed by Russian graphic artist Vasily V. Zavialov (1906-1972), engraved by Lidiya Fedorovna Majorova, and issued by Russia (USSR) on October 10, 1968 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the author's birth, Scott No. 3523, Zagorski No. 3594, plus a photo of Turgenev late in life.

- nethryk

How about this twit ?

Here is an image of a stamp featuring a (rather flattering) portrait of Nikolai Alexeevich Ostrovsky (1904-1936), a Soviet Russian soldier and socialist realist writer best known for his fictionalized autobiographical novel, How the Steel Was Tempered (first published serially from 1932-34), about the Russian Civil War, a battle scene from the novel, and the author's signature, designed by E. Aniskin, engraved by Lidiya Fedorovna Majorova and I.M. Mokrousov, and issued by Russia (USSR) on September 17, 1964, Scott No. 2897A, Zagorski No. 3010, plus an image of an undated photo of Ostrovsky.

- nethryk

Cervantes of 'Don Quixote' fame on a Spanish ATM stamp.

Here is an image of a semi-postal stamp depicting French novelist Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870), along with some of his most famous literary characters, the Three Musketeers, designed by Clément Serveau, engraved by Jean Pheulpin, and issued by France on February 12, 1970 to mark the centenary of Dumas's death, Scott No. B436, Y&T No. 1628, plus an image of an 1855 portrait of Dumas by French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820–1910). Nice 'do!

- nethryk

Grazia Deledda (1871-1936) was a Sardinian-Italian writer of novels, plays and poetry who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Deledda, designed and combined engraved by Vittorio Nicastro and lithogravure, and issued by Italy on September 28, 1971 to commemorate her birth centenary, Scott No. 1049, plus a photo of Deledda.

- nethryk

Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren, née Ericsson (1907-2002), was a Swedish author and screenwriter who is the world's 18th most translated author, selling roughly 145 million books worldwide. She is probably best known for the Pippi Longstocking book series, first published from 1945 to 1948. Lindgren invented the character Pippi Longstocking to please her daughter Karin, who was ill and bed-ridden at the time. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Lindgren, designed by Inga-Karin Eriksson after a photo by L. Jansson, engraved by Piotr Naszarkowski, and issued by Sweden on May 3, 1996, Scott No. 2175, Facit No. 1961, plus a c.1960 photo of Astrid Lindgren, and an image of a Pippi Longstocking book cover.

- nethryk

Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. I love old books written in the serialized style.



Damaged stamp though.

Fernán Caballero (1796-1877) was the pseudonym adopted from the name of a village in the province of Ciudad Real by the Spanish novelist Cecilia Francisca Josefa Böhl de Faber. For many years Caballero was the most popular of Spanish writers, and she is considered a pioneer in realism as she chose for her novels themes based upon her own life experiences. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Caballero, engraved by Pablo Sampedro Molero, and issued by Spain on February 28, 1979, Scott No. 2139, Edifil No. 2513, plus an undated sketch of the author, which may well have been the model for the stamp's design.

- nethryk

Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) was a French writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language (a Romance language, also sometimes called Provençal, which is spoken in southern France, Italy's Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spain's Val d'Aran.) Mistral won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904, and he is the most revered writer in Occitan literature. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Mistral and what I believe to be a scene from Mistral's most famous poem, Mirèio (Mireille), published in 1859. This stamp was designed by Pierrette Lambert, engraved by Charles Mazelin, and issued by Monaco on December 3, 1964 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the writer's death, Scott No. 598. Below is an image of an undated postcard photo portrait of Mistral taken at the studio of early French filmmaker and photographer Eugène Pirou (1841-1909).

- nethryk

Anyone have a John Steinbeck or his novel Grapes of Wrath?

stamperdude - Your wish is my command!

Here are images of a stamp featuring a portrait of John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (1902-1968), American writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, designed by American graphic designer Bradbury Thompson (1911–1995) after a photo by Latvian-born American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman (1906-1979), engraved by Thomas R. Hipschen (vignette) and John C. Masure (lettering), and issued by the USA on February 27, 1979, Scott No. 1773, plus an image of Halsman's photograph.

- nethryk