Literary Stamp Collecting

Here's a British set honouring William Shakespeare (I hear he's pretty popular) hinged to a Boots Drug Store card.



The original card, pre-photoshop...



Unfortunately the 6d is damaged.

well the British seem a bit reticent about putting their famous authors on stamps ... I looked for H.G. Wells, Dame Agatha Christie, & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle without much success outside of the unattractive 'wallpaper' stamps ... I do have this stamp as it's a recent US issue ...

edited to add a better scan ...

Bringing reading to the masses.

Although Agatha Christie has not appeared on any GB stamps yet (although on an Isle of Man stamp SG1315 in 2006), there are plenty of other British authors represented (by portrait or by works) on GB stamps, as shown in this link:

http://faculty.citadel.edu/hutchiss...0Revised.htm

Ireland's William Butler Yeats

"I can resist everything, but temptation".
So, he wrote...

thanks for the link 22crows! Good stuff there! I perhaps should have been more clear in my remark ... that I didn't find stamps depicting the several authors that I happened to think of at that moment (a bit embarrassed about missing the Tolkien stamps!).

Andrea - Welcome to SCF! I think you'll find that we are a fairly literate bunch.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), was a Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright, and short story writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. Here is an image of an engraved stamp featuring a portrait of Machado de Assis, issued by Brazil on November 1, 1940 to commemorate the centenary of the writer's birth, Scott No. 499, plus a photo portrait of him at age 57.

- nethryk

In my oppinion one of the finest set of literary stamps (commemorating some of the biggest writers, stamp image is very clear, offering also additional informations - Dante first meets his muse Beatrice in Florence, house of Goethe in Weimar etc.)

Issuing country PARAGUAY, stamp designer is Mosdóssy Imre (or perhaps better known as Imre von Mosdóssy - born in Hungary, Budapest 1904, died in Canada, Ontario 1995) He designed almost 900 stamps for many countries (Columbia, Canada, Honduras, Haiti)

Seven Brothers is the first and only novel by Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872), the national author of Finland, and it is widely regarded as the first significant novel written in Finnish and by a Finnish-speaking author. Here are images of the three semi-postal stamps in a Red Cross set designed by Pentti Rahikainen after drawings for the 1907 edition of the novel by Finnish painter and illustrator Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931), printed by lithography, and issued by Finland on May 8, 1970 to commemorate the centenary of the original publication of Seven Brothers, Scott Nos. B188-90, Facit Nos. 676-78.

- nethryk

On the Elf's Rock


Juhani atop Impivaara Mountain


The Pale Maiden

Alexandre Dumas pere adn his Three Muskateers.
1961 Haiti Airmail SC#C177

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer, artist, and politician. His body of literary work includes four novels, epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and color. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Goethe, designed by French artist and Grand Prix de Rome winner Paul-Pierre Lemagny (1905-1977), engraved by Claude Hertenberger, and issued by France on November 9, 1957, Scott No. 863, Y&T No. 1138, plus an image of a painted portrait of Goethe at a similar age.

- nethryk

José Martiniano de Alencar (1829-1877) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. Alencar is famous for his historical, regionalist and Indianist romances. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Alencar and an illustration of the title character of his Indian romance novel Iracema, printed by photogravure, and issued by Brazil on June 24, 1965 to commemorate the centenary of the novel's publication, Scott No. 1004, plus a photo of Alencar c. 1870, and an image of a detail from an 1881 oil painting entitled Iracema, by Portuguese-born Brazilian artist José Maria de Medeiros (1849-1925).

- nethryk

Alois Jirásek (1851-1930) was a Czech writer and author of historical novels and plays. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Jirásek, designed by Czech artist Max Svabinský (1873-1962), engraved by Jindra Schmidt, and issued by Czechoslovakia on May 4, 1949, Scott No. 379, plus an image of a portrait of the author by Czech painter and illustrator Jan Vilímek (1860-1938).

- nethryk

Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a Norwegian author who pioneered psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Hamsun, designed by Swedish artist Lennart Forsberg, engraved by Arne Wallhorn, and issued by Sweden on November 18, 1980 to commemorate Hamsun's 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature, Scott No. 1341, Facit No. 1146, plus a photo of the author in 1939.

- nethryk

PS In my opinion, Knut Hamsun's 1890 novel, Hunger, is a literary masterpiece.