riginally from Germantown, Pennsylvania, Louisa May Alcott was born in 1832 and is most famous for her

novel, Little Women. The novel is loosely based on her own childhood with her three sisters, growing up in Concord, Massachusetts. She was one of the only female authors during the Gilded Age to address womens issues. Alcott died of a stroke in Boston at the age of 55.

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enry W. Longfellow, one of the Fireside Poets, was born in Portland, Maine in 1807. He studied at Bowdoin College, and became well known for being an American poet and educator. His first major poetry collections were compiled in Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Along with writing, Longfellow later became a professor at Bowdoin Collge and Harvard University. He died in 1882, at the age of 75, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ames Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 and was a popular American novelist during the early 19th century. He wrote a number of historical novels such as the Leatherstocking Tales and a highly acclaimed romantic novel titled, The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper was enrolled at Yale University during his late teen years and was expelled due to several dangerous pranks, one involving blowing up another students door. Cooper later married and raised seven children of his own and died at the age of 61.

ames Russell Lowell was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1819. Lowell graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, but never practiced law. Lowell accepted a professorship of languages at Harvard University in 1854 following the deaths of his three children and his wife. He traveled to Europe from 1854 to 1856 before he assumed this role for twenty years. He died in 1891 in his birth home, Elmwood. The estate is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and it is now the residence of the President of Harvard University. In The Biglow Papers, Lowell experimented using Yankee dialect, something that would go on to inspire writers such as Mark Twain. Lowell published The Vision on Sir Launfal (1848) and A Fable for Critics (1848), a witty verse evaluation of critics and poets. ames Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana on October 7, 1849. Riley was known for his childrens poetry and nostalgic dialect works. Riley began writing for the Daily Indianapolis Journal in 1879. Some of his novels include Little Orphan Annie and The Raggedy Man. His collection of poems Rhymes of Childhood brought him fame. He contributed a sense of midwestern childhood life in America. He kept writing until his right arm became paralyzed on July 10, 1910 due to stroke. Riley died in 1916 at the age of 66. The James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children opened in 1924 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

ohn Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker poet born in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1807. Known as one of the Fireside Poets, Whittier was a strong advocate for the abolition of slavery. The Kansas City Star announced his death by stating Freedoms Poet at Rest. One of his most famous works, Snow Bound (1866), was a long narrative poem that took place at the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Whittier received 10,000 dollars for the first edition of this poem. After the Civil War, he received an honorary degree from Harvard College. Whittier died in 1892, his grave can be visited in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Whittier is quoted to have said For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, it might have been.

amuel Longhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain was born during a visit by Halleys Comet. He predicted that he would go out with it as well. He died on April 21, 1910, the day following the comets return. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called the Great American Novel. His wit and satire earned praise from his critics and peers. In 1884, he met Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. He introduced them to his close friend, Henry H. Rogers, who paid for Helens education at Radcliffe College. alt Whitman lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s, he was the second son in a family, which consisted of nine children. He was born in 1819 and by the age of twelve he began to learn the printers trade. He founded the weekly newspaper, Long-Islander before becoming editor of the New Orleans Crescent. In New Orleans he saw firsthand the viciousness in the slave markets. He returned to Brooklyn and founded a free soil newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman. In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, it consisted of twelve untitled poems. A year later a second edition of the book containing thirty-three poems, with a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman was released. ashington Irving was born in New York in 1783 and died in 1859. Irving was a member of the Knickerbocker Group, which later became known as the first school of American authors. He is noted as one of the first American authors to become popular in Europe. The two works that Irving is most famous for are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

alph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 and was the fourth of eight children. He entered Harvard at 14 and began keeping a journal, a practice he would continue for life. Following graduation he taught for four years and entered Harvard Divinity School. His life-long home was Concord, MA, where he married his second wife Lydia Jackson in 1835 and they had four children. In 1836 he published his first book, Nature. In 1841 his essay Self-Reliance was published, in it he says, To be great is to be misunderstood. He said in an 1854 address on anti-slavery, Self-reliance, the height and perfection of man, is self-reliance on God. He preached the God within, not the God of authority and tradition. His best loved poems are; Concord Hymn, Threnody, Brahma, and his favorite, Days. He died in his sleep in April of 1882.

he Joel Chandler Harris stamp was released December 9, 1948 commemorating the centennial of his birth. Harris was born December 9, 1848 and died in 1908 in Eatonton, Georgia. He was an American journalist and fiction writer. He is best known for his stories about Uncle Remus, a fictional character who was a slave. Harris also recorded stories featuring the Brer Rabbit from African American oral tradition. These stories revolutionized childrens literature. W.A. Roach designed this stamp and it is one of the seven stamps issued between 1947 and 1950 that mirror the design of the original 1940s issue.

dgar Allan Poe had a knack for writing about the strange. It is no surprise then that when the first Poe stamp was issued, it was on the anniversary of his death, rather than his birth. The style may appear similar to the commemorative collection of literary stamps issued prior to Poes. That is because Poe was originally considered to be a part of that collection, but was turned down due to his rather mischievous life. In the end Poes great contributions to literature won the masses over and the stamp was released on October 7, 1949.

urante delgi Alighieri was born in Italy in 1265 and died in 1321. Dante wrote during the middle ages and is sometimes called the Father of the Italian languages. He is the source of modern Italian and has inspired many writers such as William Blake and Geoffrey Chaucer. Dante married Gemma di Manetto Donati and they had five children. Dantes The Divine Comedy describes Dantes journey through Hell (Inferno), Pergatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). This stamp was released in 1965 marking the 700th anniversary of his birth. The style created by Douglas Gorsline is based on an early allegorical painting. Dante is wearing a laurel wreath, a symbol of the poet. The background is meant to depict a scene from The Divine Comedy. enry David Thoreau was born July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts and died there in 1862. Thoreau attended Harvard College and graduated in 1837. His best-known work, Civil Disobedience (1849), is a collection of lectures given by Thoreau on the topic of resisting the civil government. This work went on to inspire Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau is also known for the book Walden, in which he explores detachment from society through living in a cabin on Walden Pond. This stamp was issued on July 12, 1967 on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Thoreau is quoted to have said A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint.

illiam Shakespeare is a world-renowned English poet and playwright born in 1564. He is known for such classic plays as Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, along with his famous sonnets. Most of his work was produced between 1589 and 1613. The Globe Theatre was erected in 1598 and many of Shakespeares plays were performed there. Shakespeare was also an actor and performed as a member of Lord Chamberlains Men. The original Globe Theatre burned in 1613 when a cannon was fired during a performance of Henry VIII. Shakespeare died in 1616 in Warwickshire, England, his birthplace. This stamp was released on August 14, 1964 commemorating the 400th anniversary of his birth.

rnie Pyle was born on August 3, 1900 on a tenant farm near Dana, Indiana. In 1932, Pyle would become the managing editor of the Washington Daily News. He earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his coverage of military campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. He was killed by Japanese machine gunfire the next year during the Okinawa campaign when he visited the nearby island of Ie Shima. He is among the few American civilians to be awarded the Purple Heart. His wartime writings are preserved in four books; Ernie Pyle in England, Here is Your War, Brave Men and Last Chapter. The Ernie Pyle stamp was issued on May 7, 1971. Robert Geissman, who based the design on an Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph, illustrated the stamp. mily Dickinson made her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she was born on December 10, 1830. She was very reclusive and even though she wrote 1,775 poems, only seven were published in her lifetime. Five of those were published and printed in the Springfield Republican. Her style of poetry is regarded as complex and tends to focus on powerful themes of love, life, death and grief. Four years after her death a collection of her work entitled, Poems by Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd appeared in 1890. The commemorative stamp to honor her was issued on August 28, 1971.

prison at Point Lookout in Maryland. His most famous works include The Marshes of Glynn and Sunrise. The Southern Reconstruction inspired these poems after the war. He played the flute for the Peabody Orchestra in Baltimore, Maryland and he spent the rest of his short life writing and lecturing at Johns Hopkins University on the writings of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Anglo-Saxon poetry. He died in North Carolina at the age of 39. His stamp was issued in 1972. he Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written in 1876 by Mark Twain, tells the story of twelve year old Tom and his adventures on the banks of the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer is portrayed by Twain as an immature and mischievous character whose actions bring moral lessons to the reader. This stamp was issued on October 13, 1972 as part of the folklore series. The image on the stamp depicts Tom Sawyer white washing a fence, a punishment from his Aunt Polly. The collection of toys is the loot that Tom acquired by tricking others to do the chore for him.

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idney Lanier was born on February 3, 1842 in Macon, Georgia. His interest in music and the flute would begin at a young age and endure. In 1867 he published his first book and his only novel, Tiger Lilies, about his own experiences as a soldier in the Civil War. It was during the war that he contracted tuberculosis or consumption when he was incarcerated in a military

ugene ONeill was an American playwright whose struggles as a child growing up in a theater family fueled his writing with a high sense of drama. ONeill was born in New York City in a hotel bedroom on October 16, 1888. Beyond the Horizon, performed in February of 1920, brought ONeill his first Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He would go on to win three more Pulitzers for Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928) and Long Days Journey into Night (1956). In 1936 ONeill became the second American to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He died on November 27, 1953 in Boston.

ohn Robinson Jeffers was an American poet. His most commonly remembered poems celebrated California coastal scenery where he and his wife moved in 1916. Jeffers was born on January 10, 1887 in Allegheny, Pa. His childhood travels in Europe made him well versed in Greek and Latin. His most famous poems are Tamar and Roan Stallion. Both of these poems reflect a mastery of epic form while dealing with controversial subject matter. By using blank verse with no meter, Jeffers shows a preference of the natural world against what man has done to corrupt it. Jeffers passed away in Carmel on January 20, 1962. His stamp was issued on August 13, 1973.

his lifetime. Some of his poems include The Road Not Taken, A Patch of Old Snow, and The Telephone. He passed away in 1963 at the age of 88. His grave, located in Bennington, Vermont, quotes the last line from his poem A Lesson for Today--I had a lovers quarrel with the world. His stamp was issued in 1974. aul Laurence Dunbar was born June 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio and died in 1906 at the age of 33. Both of his parents were escaped slaves. He was an African American poet and gained recognition for his poem in 1896 Ode to Ethiopia. Dunbar attended Daytons Central High School where he was the only African American. He was the editor of the school newspaper and president of the literary society. Dunbar also wrote and edited for The Tattler, which was Daytons first African American newspaper. Dunbar lectured and read to audiences in England and the United States. His poetry often had African American dialect woven in and some were set to music. This stamp was issued on May 1, 1975. he Carl Sandburg stamp, illustrated by William A. Smith, was released on January 6, 1978 on the centennial of his birth. He was born in a threeroom cottage in Galesburg, Illinois on January 6, 1878, Sandburg attended Lombard College in the same town and earned two Pulitzer Prizes in Poetry for The Complete Works of Carl Sandburg and Cornhuskers. His popular biography Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (2 vol.,1926) was followed by Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (4 vols., 1939), which won the Pulitzer Prize. Between these two sets he published a biography of his brother-in-law, Steichen, the Photographer (1929). He also sang folk songs that were issued in two popular collections, The American Songbook (1927) and New American Songbook (1950).

illa Cather was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1873 and was an American author whose work was inspired by her life on the Nebraskan Great Plains. She attended the University of Nebraska where she excelled in creative writing and journalism. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel following a Nebraskan soldier during World War I. Some of Cathers other works include Oh, Pioneers (1913) and My Antonia (1918), often called her finest achievement. At the age of 33 until her death in 1947, she lived in New York and continued her life as a writer. Her written work focused on the conflict that existed between the pioneers of the west and their struggles adapting to the changing modern world. This stamp, depicting the image of Cather set against a covered wagon, was issued in 1974.

orn in 1874, Robert Lee Frost was a renowned American poet. He is known for his precise detail and realistic depictions of life in 20th century rural New England. He studied at Dartmouth and Harvard, though he never received a degree from either school. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry during

ohn Ernst Steinbeck spent a great deal of his life in Californias Monterey County. He was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He worked as a manual laborer while writing, an experience that adds to the authenticity of his characters. He attended Stanford University intermittently between 1920 -1926, but never earned a degree. Many of his stories were made into films; his novella Of Mice and Men (1937; films, 1939, 1999), Tortilla Flat (1935; film, 1942), The Red Pony (1937; film, 1949) ,The Grapes of Wrath (1939 Pulitzer Prize; film, 1940). In 1952 he wrote, East of Eden and in 1961 his book, The Winter of Our Discontent was published. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, the same year that his very popular book, Travels With Charley was written. He died on December 20, 1968. This stamp, from 1979, is the first to be released as part of the Literary Arts Series.

achel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pa. Carson published numerous pamphlets and edited many scientific articles on the topic of preservation before being appointed Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After turning her work into what some call a biography of the ocean Carson became known as a scientific writer for the public. The Edge of the Sea and Help Your Children Wonder educated the common person about the environment. In 1962, Silent Spring was released and is said to have started the modern day environmental movement against pesticides. Carson died on April 14, 1964 in Silverspring, MD. oratio Alger was born on January 13, 1832 in Chelsea, Mass. After entering Harvard University at the age of 16, he began his career as a writer. It was not until 1867 that his city stories became a popular series among young boys. The series of dime novels written by Alger were called Ragged Dick and focused on heroes who lived in poverty in the streets of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In his lifetime, Alger produced roughly 100 of these rags to riches stories. Alger died on July 18, 1899. His stamp was issued on April 30, 1982 commemorating the 150th anniversary of his birth. The design for his stamp is based on the cover of Ragged Dick.

he Edith Wharton Stamp was issued September 5, 1980 as part of the Literary Arts Series. Edith Wharton was born January 24, 1862 in New York City and died in 1937 in France. Her governess instilled a love of literature at a young age and she went on to write her first novel at the age of fourteen. She received critical acclaim for The House of Mirth (1905). After 1907 she lived in France, visiting the United States at rare intervals. In 1913 she was divorced from her husband who had been committed to a mental hospital. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1920 for The Age of Innocence. Her best known work is the long tale, Ethan Frome, written in 1911. She contributed to travelogues, house and decorating guides and wrote poetry and short stories. An autobiography, A Backward Glance appeared in 1934.

lso known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu, Pearl Buck was born on June 26, 1892 in Hillsboro, NC. Her parents were Presbyterian Missionaries and moved to China when Buck was three months old. After graduating college at Randolph-Macon Womans College, she returned to China in 1914 and married an Agricultural missionary. They lived at Nanjing University where she taught English Literature. While residing there Buck published The Good Earth in 1931. She received the Pulitzer for this novel in 1932. In 1938 she was further awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the first woman and third American to be awarded this honor. She died on March 6, 1973. Her stamp was issued as part of the Great American Stamp Series.

athaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts and died in 1864. The Nathaniel Hawthorne stamp was released in 1983 at the House of Seven Gables, the home of his cousin, Susanna that inspired his work by the same title in 1851. Hawthornes most famous writing was The Scarlet Letter. By 1832, My Kinsmen, Major Molineux and Roger Malvins Burial, two of his greatest tales, appeared in print. He attended Bowdoin College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He later published novels as well as short stories. The stamp was based on a portrait that now hangs in the Grolier Club in New York City. Bradbury Thompson illustrated it. arter Woodson was a writer and historian, often called the Father of Black History. He was born December 19, 1875 in New Canton, Virginia and died in 1950. He was the son of former slaves James and Eliza Woodson and one of the first people to study African American history. He founded the Association of the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson also started Negro History Week in 1926, which later became Black History Month. Some of his writing includes The Negro in Our History (1922) and Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). Woodson was the second African American, after W.E.B. Du Bois to earn a PhD from Harvard University. His stamp was issued on February 1, 1984 and was part of the Black Heritage Series.

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time of his death, he was almost completely forgotten. Melville was the first writer to have his pieces published by the Library of America. This stamp was released at a whaling museum on August 1, 1984 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the setting for Moby Dick. inclair Lewis wrote 22 novels and three plays, his public success was sealed in 1920 with his sixth novel, Main Street. Within two years estimated sales were at two million. A couple years later his much beloved character, Babbitt, was created in the book by the same title. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith in 1925. Two years later he wrote about a revivalist minister in Elmer Gantry and Dodsworth followed this in 1929. Sinclair became the first American novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His only son, Wells (named after author, H.G. Wells) wrote one book before he died fighting in France during WWII. Sinclair died in Rome of advanced alcoholism in 1951. This stamp was released on March 21, 1985.

erman Melville was born August 1, 1819 in New York and died in 1891. He wrote short stories, essays, and poems. Melville is best known for his whaling novel Moby Dick. Some of his other works include Mardi (1849) and White Jacket (1850). He was urged by his sister to put his experiences into tale about life at sea after travelling on the sea from the ages of 39 until 44. Though popular during his publication, by the

n June 30, 1986 the U.S. Post Office issued a 1-cent stamp showing Atlanta author and reporter, Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949). The date of the stamps release marked the 50th anniversary of the day her epic novel, Gone With the Wind (1936), went on sale. According to the Postal Service, the Mitchell issue is a definitive --not commemorative--stamp. Traditionally, definitive stamps have been the workhorse of the postal system. This means they are available in a variety of denominations, are printed in great quantities, are available over long periods of time and are almost always smaller in size than commemorative stamps. By contrast, the commemorative is usually printed only once, available for a limited time and usually printed in the denomination that applies to one ounce of first-class mail. Her stamp was 31st in the Great Americans Series.

.S. Eliot was a renowned Modernist poet, playwright, and literary critic. His first important publication, and the first masterpiece of modernism in English, was the radically experimental, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock(1915). The 1922 publication of The Waste Land, expressed disillusionment with the post WWI years. From the time of this post as editor until his death he was a director of the publishing firm Faber & Faber. He wrote seven plays in his lifetime. The lightverse collection Old Possums Book of Practical Cats (1939) would inspire the hugely successful musical Cats (1981). In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, he died at 76 in 1965. The stamp illustration is based on a photograph taken of Eliot for The New York Times. It was issued on September 26, 1986. illiam Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in Oxford, Mississippi. He is best known as a novelist and short story writer. In the years between 1930 and 1942 he wrote nine novels, a second book of poetry and two collections of stories. His most famous novels include: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and These 13. His most acclaimed stories are Rose for Emily and That Evening Sun Go Down. In 1949 Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He received two Pulitzers for A Fable (1954) and The Reivers(1962). Faulkner died on July 6, 1962.

for his stories of the Old West, which gave easterners the imagery to envision what lay beyond their front porch. He followed his writing career with 24 years spent abroad serving as U.S. Consul in Germany and Scotland. The Bret Harte stamp released on August 23, 1987, was a fivedollar stamp and is part of the Great American Series.

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ack London is best known for his novels Call of the Wild and White Fang. He was born January 12, 1876 and died on November 22, 1916. He was an author, journalist, and activist. London is one of the first writers to enjoy celebrity based on his fiction writing, passion for workers rights were often the topic of his novels. In 1857, London left for the Klondike gold rush. These influenced his short story To Build a Fire. Toward the end of his life London claimed that he only continued writing to add acres to his land. This postage stamp was released January 11, 1986 at Dunbar Elementary School and Jack Londons daughter, Bess London Fleming, gave a speech.

ret Harte was born August 25, 1836 in Albany, New York and died in Cambridge, Mass. in1902. Hart published his first poem Autumn Musings at age 11. He attended school until he was 13. His early work appeared in the literary journal The Californian and he became editor of The Overland Monthly. He is best known

rnest Hemingway was born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois and died in 1961. He was an author and journalist. Hemingways writing is characterized by understatement. In 1917 he was a reporter for The Kansas Star and was honored after he sustained injuries as an ambulance driver in WWI. His novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (Pulitzer Prize, 1952). Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 1954. There were two ceremonies held for the release of Hemingways stamp. One took place at his home in Florida on July, 17, 1989; and the other occurred in his birthplace, Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1989.

arianne Moore has won several different awards. In 1933, she won the Helen Haire Levinson Prize for Poetry. She also won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollinger Prize for her book Collected Poems of 1951. Moore was born November 15, 1887 in Kirkwood, Missouri and died in 1972 in New York. She attended Bryn Mawr College and graduated in 1909. Moore was a modernist poet and she was known for her wit. She is quoted to have said, Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. Her stamp was released April 18, 1990 in Brooklyn, New York. illiam Saroyan is an Armenian American author. He was born August 31, 1908 in Fresno, California and died in 1981. Many of Saroyans stories are set in his native Fresno. He was placed in an orphanage in California and he wrote about this in later life. In 1939, Saroyan refused the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time of Your Life, claiming it was no better than anything else he had written. In 1948, this play was adapted to the screen starring James Gagney. This stamp had a joint release as a 29 cent stamp in the United States and a one-ruble stamp in the Soviet Union. Saroyans stamp was released on May 22, 1991 in Fresno, California.

short stories and in 1929 won the O. Henry Award. She also collaborated on several screenplays until her leftish sympathies made her a liability in post-war Hollywood. She died on June 7, 1967.

ames Grover Thurber was born on December 8, 1894 in Columbus, Ohio and garnered a love of humor and practical jokes from his mother, Mary Agnes Fisher. In 1902 at the age of seven, Thurber was accidentally shot in the eye with a toy arrow by his brother William, causing the eye to be removed. His right eye suffered from sympathetic infection leading to blindness in later life. After writing for several different magazines and papers, E.B. White landed Thurber a job as a copy editor at The New Yorker. The two collaborated on the Talk of the Town column for eight years. Thurber continued to submit cartoons to the magazine. A Thurber Carnival was released in 1945 as an anthology of autobiographical stories of James Thurber. Before going blind in 1951 Thurber drew a self-portrait using yellow crayon on black paper. It would be his last drawing for the cover of Time. This same image appears on the stamp issued on September 10, 1994. James Thurber died on November 2, 1961.

orothy Parkers commemorative stamp was issued in Long Branch, New Jersey on August 22, 1992 as part of the Literary Arts series where she was born in 1893. She sold her first poems to Vanity Fair in 1914, a few months later she worked as an editorial assistant for Vogue magazine. As a stand-in for writer P.G. Wodehouse she wrote theatre criticism for Vanity Fair and her career took off. She met Robert E. Sherwood and Robert Benchley and they began lunching at the Algonquin Hotel. These meetings marked the founding of the Algonquin Round Table. She published her first volume of poetry, Enough Rope, in 1926. She wrote

ennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911. He attended The University of Missouri, University of Washington, and University of Iowa. At the University of Iowa, students called him Tennessee because they knew that his family had connections there. Williams was famously known for his playwriting skills. Some of his most renowned plays include; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, and The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award for Best Play, 1951). He also won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for drama in 1948 for A Streetcar Named Desire and the second for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Williams died in 1983 at the age of 71. This stamp was released on October 13, 1995 and was illustrated by Michael Deas.

he Little House on the Prairie stamp was designed by Jim Lamb and was issued on October 23, 1993 to honor the series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She began writing her eight novels when she was in her sixties at the suggestion of her daughter. The stories are based on her youth as a pioneer in the Midwest and were written between 1932 and 1943. The book that this stamp honors was written in 1935. She was born in 1867 and died in Mansfield, Mo. in 1957. This stamp was issued as part of the Youth Classic Novel Series. ebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is an American novel written in 1903 by Kate Douglas Wiggin. The novel is about a young girl Rebecca who is sent to live with her two strict aunts in Maine. Through her joy of life she is able to inspire them and change their harsh ways.

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he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, was first published in England in 1884 and was released in America three months later. This was the first major piece of literature to be written in the vernacular style. The speaking language in the book is characterized by the local regionalism. This book is known for its colorful description of southern life and its frequent use of coarse language and racial slurs. While this book was highly successful it received some disdain due to the language and was often banned. The Concord, Massachusetts Public Library even issued a statement saying it was more suited to the slums than intelligent respectable people. ittle Women was written by Louisa May Alcott and was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. It allowed her to settle the familys debts at last. Alcott was urged by her publisher to construct a novel for girls. Alcott wrote about four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March. This is one novel by Alcott in a series of four complete works called The March Saga. The other books are called, The Good Wives, Little Men and Jos Boys. The concluding novels follow Jo, a character believed to be modeled after Alcott, who is brave, outspoken and creative.

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ohn Henry is an American folk hero known for winning a race against a steam-powered hammer and afterward died with his hammer in hand. It is legend that he could also drive a hammer for ten hours without stopping. He has been the subject of many songs, stories, and novels. Scholars agree the character of John Henry is based on a man who participated in a steam drill race, but cannot agree where this contest took place. The most common image of John Henry is of him holding a hammer, which can be seen on the stamp. This stamp was created in 1996. aul Bunyan is a mythological character that has unusual skills as a lumberjack. The story was first documented in the work of U.S. journalist James MacGillivray in 1910. Just six years later, as part of an advertising campaign for a logging company, writer William Laughead reworked the old logging tales into that of a giant lumberjack. Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, his companion, dug the Grand Canyon when he dragged his axe behind him. He created Mount Hood by piling rocks on top of his campfire to put it out. Authors Richard Dorson and Marshall Fitwick cite Paul Bunyan as an example of fakelore, or a modern story passed off as an older folktale. The Paul Bunyan stamp was released on July 11, 1996.

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he Pecos Bill stamp was released on July 11, 1996. The tall tale immortalizes Pecos as a fictional cowboy character of the Old West at the time of the American westward expansion in the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico, Southern California and Arizona. The first stories were published in 1917 by Edward OReilly for The Century Magazine, and reprinted in the 1923 book, Saga of Pecos Bill. The character is involved in feats of courage and prowess, such as riding a tornado whirlwind like a bronco and using a rattlesnake named Shake for a lasso. The author James Cloyd Bowman borrowed from OReilly when he wrote Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time. It was awarded the Newberry Award in 1938 and was republished in 2007.

n July 15, 1996, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp depicting Mighty Casey. The author of the famous poem was an 1885 Harvard graduate, Ernest L. Thayer. This folk hero is documented as being the greatest hitter of all time, yet his pompous attitude caused him to strike out at what could have been his greatest moment of triumph. New York actor, DeWolf Hopper helped to popularize the poem by reciting it an estimated 10,000 times; it became his signature act.

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. Scott Fitzgerald (Frances Scott Key Fitzgerald) stated The reason one writes isnt the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has to say something. He was born September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota and died in Hollywood in 1940. He was named after his distant cousin Frances Scott Key, the writer of The Star-Spangled Banner. He wrote novels and short stories as well as coined the term the Jazz Age. He attended St. Paul Academy and Princeton. His stamp was released September 24, 1996, to commemorate the centennial of his birth. This stamp was illustrated by Michael Deas, who set the writer against a backdrop inspired by a description in The Great Gatsby.

this stamp appears to reflect a scene straight from the house featured in The Great Gatsby. This novel was first published in 1925. It tells the story of the extravagant and elusive figure Gatsby and his home on the North Shore of Long Island in the summer of 1925. tephen Vincent Benet was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1898. He was best known for his narrative poem of the Civil War titled John Browns Body, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929. He attended Yale University and became a contributor for Time Magazine as well. During his lifetime, Benet adapted the tale of the rape of the Sabine woman into a play entitled Sobbin Women. This was later adapted into the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Benet died on March 13, 1943 in New York City. This stamp commemorating the Centennial of his birth was issued in 1998. he novel Gone with the Wind was originally published in May 1936 by Margaret Mitchell. The book is set in Clayton County, Georgia during the Civil War and revolves around the romantic relationship between Scarlett OHara and Rhett Butler. The title is taken from the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dawson, which translates as I have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the Wind! Mitchell received a Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and the story was adapted to film winning an Academy Award in 1939. This stamp was released on September 10, 1998 as part of the collection celebrating the achievement of the 1930s.

hornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin on April 17, 1897. Wilder wrote and published while serving the in U.S. Coast Guard during WW1 and as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force in Italy in 1945. In 1928, Wilder experienced commercial success for his second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which went on to secure him a Pulitzer. It would bring him the first of three Pulitzers. In 1938 he was awarded a Pulitzer for his dramatic play, Our Town and in 1942 for The Skin of Our Teeth. Wilders play The Matchmaker was adapted into the musical Hello, Dolly! He also wrote a screenplay for Hitchcocks 1943 thriller Shadow of a Doubt. Wilder died on December 7, 1975. he Gatsby stamp was issued as part of the 1920s Celebrate the Century. Issued in 1998, it reflects the style of the 1920s American society of prosperity with social parties everyone wished to be a part of. Based on the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald,

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alcolm X, originally named Malcolm Little, was born in Omaha, Nebraska in May of 1925. He was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. Malcolm saw his house burned down by the KKK and following the death of his father and his mothers removal to a mental institution, he moved in with his sister in Boston. In 1946, while in prison for burglary, Malcolm converted to the Black Muslim faith. Upon his release he changed his last name to X as a rejection of his slave name. Unlike the civil rights movement at the time, Malcolm focused his beliefs on Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism and encouraged the separation of blacks and whites. He was assassinated at a speaking engagement in a Harlem ballroom on February 21, 1965 at the age of 39. This stamp was issued on January 20, 1999 in New York City and displays a photo taken of Malcolm X by the Associated Press in 1964. It is part of the Black Heritage Series.

o mark the centennial of Thomas Wolfes birth, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp to honor his life. The image was illustrated by Michael Deas. He was born in Asheville, NC on October 3, 1900. Wolfe attended Harvard for three years where he wrote and acted before moving to New York City in 1923. He was a master of the autobiographical novel, reflected in the character, Eugene Gant in Look Homeward Angel published in 1929. He described working with Maxwell Perkins, his esteemed editor at Scribner, in his book, The Story of a Novel (1936). He died at 37 of tuberculosis. angston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. As a child growing up in Kansas with his grandmother, Hughes was taught to embrace his identity as an African American. The lessons from his grandmother fueled his writing during the Harlem Renaissance. He wanted his work to express the joy of his people and the music their lives created in a time when his community was looked down upon. In 1934 Hughes released a collection of stories about the interactions between white and blacks called, The Ways of White Folks. His poetry gave him notoriety upon his death on May 22, 1967. Hughes ashes were interred under a medallion that is entitled Rivers after his poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. A line from the poem is at the center of a river design and reads, My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, was written in 1947. The play revolves around the clash of Stanley Kowalski and southerner Blanche Dubois. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. This stamp was issued on February 18, 1999 as part of the Celebrate the Century Issue for the 1940s. yn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. She immigrated to Hollywood and worked as a screenwriter in 1926. Her 1946 book, The Fountainhead would become a durable best-seller. The book touts her philosophy of Objectivism that all real achievement is the product of individual ability and effort. After the success of The Fountainhead, Rand moved to New York and began working on what is regarded as her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. It was released in 1957 and explores the role of mans mind in mans existence through the character of John Galt. The stamp was designed by Nicholas Gaetano and reflects the Manhattan skyline, which Rand considered to be the greatest symbol of human achievement, in an art-deco form.

he Ogden Nash stamp was released August 19, 2002 along with six previously unpublished poems commemorating the centennial of his birth. He was born on August 19, 1902 and died on May 19, 1971. He was a poet known for light verse and humorous portrayals of human foibles. Through his poetry he experimented with the English language, often creating words and having unexpected rhymes. His playful poetry often branched out of lines from other authors or simply certain animals. Nash published a magazine piece in Sport, entitled A Line-up for Yesterday in which he listed the baseball greats in alphabetical order and offered a quirky description of each. After his death the New York Times said he was the best-known producer of humorous poetry. Michael Deas illustrated this stamp.

Black experience through his own life. His essay Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son was a best-seller and sold over a million copies. This stamp, designed by Thomas Blackshear II, is based off on a black and white photograph from 1960. The background is based on a scene from Go Tell it on the Mountain in Harlem. obert Penn Warren was honored in 2005 with a commemorative stamp on the centennial of his birth. In 1928, Penn entered the New College and Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel All the Kings Men in 1947 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for both poetry and fiction. He was named the first Poet Laureate of the United States in 1986. Will Wilson painted this stamp and based the portrait on a 1948 photograph of Warren. The background reflects a scene from Warrens work, All the Kings Men. atherine Anne Porters Collected Short Stories (1965) won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Porters only novel, Ship of Fools (1962, film, 1965) shares the theme of the ascendancy of Nazism as does her 1944 story, The Leaning Tower. Porter was born in Texas in 1890, her long, short stories feature complex characters typical to novels. She moved to Mexico in 1920 following positions as a journalist in Chicago and Denver. Three years before her death she wrote about the SaccoVanzetti murder trial in The Never-Ending Wrong (1977). Porters Collected Short Stories (1965) won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The stamp portrait was based on a 1936 photograph by George Platt Lynes, the artist was Michel Deas of Brooklyn Heights, NY.

ora Neale Hurston was an American author and anthropologist during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Born on January 7, 1891, her family lived in Eatonville, Alabama, which was the first all-black town to be incorporated into the United States. She wrote over fifty short stories and essays and is most famous for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was published in 1937. Through her work with literary anthropology on African American folklore, Hurston was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct fieldwork in Haiti and Jamaica. Hurston died on January 28, 1960 and was buried under an unmarked grave. In 1973, novelist Alice Walker found an unmarked grave in the area where Hurston was buried and marked it as Hurstons.

ames Baldwin is the 20th author to be commemorated in the Literary Series of stamps. Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin lived there until 1948 when American prejudice led him to relocate to France. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School where he worked on the schools magazine, publishing many works in it. Baldwin was known for essays that explore the

ark Twain was born in 1835 and grew up along the west bank of the Mississippi in Hannibal, Missouri. This would provide the setting for his most noted novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel in 1885, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He contributed to his brother Orions newspaper after apprenticing as a printer and working as a typesetter. Twain studied 2,000 miles of the Mississippi River for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license. What he lacked in financial acumen he gained in his success as a writer and public speaker earning high praise for his wit and satire. He was hailed as the greatest American humorist of his age, and Faulkner called him the father of American literature. As requested his autobiography was published 100 years after his death in 2010, his FOREVER U.S. Postal commemorative stamp was issued in Hannibal in June, 2011.

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heodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) filled his books with outlandish characters, nonsensical words and comic situations. In 1957 he published his most famous work for young readers entitled, The Cat in the Hat. Theodor Geisels most famous character was featured on this stamp to acknowledge the impact Geisel has had on childrens literature. heodor Geisel is more commonly known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss. He attended Dartmouth College and was the editor-in-chief of Dartmouths oldest collegiate humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern. He first took the pen name Seuss so that he could continue to work on the magazine after being banned for violating Prohibition. Geisel wrote and illustrated a total of 44 childrens books including Green Eggs and Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The stamp was released in California on March 2, 2004, on the centennial of his birth. It displays a photo of Geisel taken in 1987 with some familiar embellishments. To honor his contribution to childrens literature familiar characters from his books were placed around his image.

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enry Wadsworth Longfellow was honored by the U.S. Postal Service a second time in March of 2007 with the release of the 23rd stamp in the Literary Arts Series. The release marked the bicentennial of his birth. Longfellow is sometimes referred to as the uncrowned poet laureate of his time. This stamp features Longfellow against the backdrop of one of his most famous poems The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. arjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born in Washington, D.C. in 1896. She received her English degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1918, she worked on the universitys literary journal where she met and married Charles Rawlings. In 1928, they purchased a 72 acre orange grown near Hawthorne, Florida in a hamlet named Cross Creek. Eleven years later she would receive the Pulitzer Prize for her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn. The film was released in 1946 and brought her fame. Rawlings published 33 short stories from 1912 to 1949. She divorced in 1933, the same year that her first novel, South Moon Under was published. Her final novel, The Sojourner, was published in 1953. She died that same year at 57. This commemorative stamp was issued in February of 2008.

ten years later published his poem, The Raven to instant success. His wife died in 1847 and the cause of his death in 1849 is unknown. His stamp was issued in January, 2009 to commemorate his bicentennial.

ichard Wright was born on September 4,1908 in Mississippi. His upbringing in the South gave him a lasting impression of racism. The experience influenced his future work. Wright moved to Chicago in 1927 and five years later joined the Communist Party. Wright published a collection of short stories in 1938 that focused on the southern problem of lynching entitled Uncle Toms Children. This brought Wright financial security. The money allowed him to write his novel Native Son two years later. In 1944 he left the Communist Party and settled in Paris as a permanent ex-Patriot and working writer. Black Boy is Wrights semi-autobiographical novel and was a best seller published in 1945. In 2009, Wrights stamp was issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Literary Art Series. The image depicted behind Wright on the stamp, aims to create the Chicago scenery set in his novel, Native Son.

dgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, he died in Baltimore at the age of 40. He had a financially difficult life because he was among the first to earn a living solely by writing. He is credited with being among the first American short story writers and was best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction and considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. His first anonymous collection of poems was published in 1827. He spent the next several years writing prose for several literary journals. In 1835 he married his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm and

orn February 17, 1914 in Puerto Rico, Julia de Burgos was a political activist for the independence of Puerto Rico and womens civil rights. In her poem To Julia de Burgos she wrote, I am life, strength, woman. She attended the University at San Juan and graduated at the age of 19 with a degree in education. After graduating, she taught children and wrote educational plays for the radio. Her three books of poetry combine intimate description of the lands of the island as well as the social struggles that the people faced. Her collection of poetry, Song of Simple Truth (1939) won a prize from Puerto Ricos Institute of Literature. Burgos died at the age of 39 in 1953. The design on her her stamp reflects the island she described in her poetry.