Ralph Ellison (Literary Arts)

RalphEllison91-single-BGv1_0Just added February 1: This stamp will be issued February 18th with Kansas City as the first-day city. More February 1 details below.

The December 12th USPS Postal Bulletin indicates that this denominated issue covering the three-ounce rate will be released sometime in February at a location still to be determined. (New York would make sense, since he lived there and his Invisible Man was set there. He was born in Oklahoma City, probably on March 1, 1914.

From my article from the October press preview:

The photograph n which the design is based was taken by famed African-American photograph Gordon Parks, and used on the dust jacket for the first edition of the book.

 From the USPS on January 16th:

The 29th stamp in the Literary Arts series honors author Ralph Ellison (1913–1994). With his 1952 novel Invisible Man, a masterpiece of 20th-century fiction, Ellison drew on a wide range of narrative and cultural traditions, shedding vivid light on the African-American experience while setting a new benchmark for all American novelists.

The stamp art is an oil-on-panel painting featuring a portrait of Ellison based on a black-and-white photograph by Ellison’s friend Gordon Parks, a renowned staff photographer for Life magazine. The photo appeared on the back of the dust jacket of the first edition of Invisible Man in 1952. The background of the stamp art shows a Harlem street at twilight.

Drawing deeply on European and American literature as well as jazz, the blues, African-American folklore, and popular culture, Invisible Man won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison’s nonfiction writing, especially the 1964 collection Shadow and Act, has also been praised for providing touchstones for black artists who loved American culture but often felt excluded by it.

The artwork for this stamp was created by Kadir Nelson. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp.

Sold in sheets of 20, the 91-cent Ralph Ellison stamp is designed for the First-Class Mail® three-ounce rate.

Here’s the first-day Digital Color Postmark for this issue:

ellison_dcp_vsc

From the USPS on February 1st:

On February 18, 2014, in Kansas City, Missouri, the U.S. Postal Service® will issue the Ralph Ellison 91-cent definitive stamp, in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 116500).The 91-cent value meets the new rate for First-Class Mail® weighing up to three ounces.

The stamp will go on sale nationwide February 18, 2014.

The 29th stamp in the Literary Arts series honors author Ralph Ellison (1913-1994). With his 1952 novel, Invisible Man, a masterpiece of 20th-century fiction, Ellison drew on a wide range of narrative and cultural traditions, shedding vivid light on the African-American experience. The stamp art, an oil-on-wood painting by Kadir Nelson, shows Ellison circa 1950; the background shows Harlem at twilight. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp.

Item 116500, 91-cent Ralph Ellison Definitive PSA Pane of 20 Stamps

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:
Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office™, at The Postal Store® website at www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

Ralph Ellison Stamp
Cancellation Services
8300 Underground Drive, Pillar 210
Kansas City, MO 64144-0001

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, customers have to pay five cents each. All orders must be postmarked by April 19, 2014.

There are seven philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

  • 116506, Press Sheet w/Die Cuts, $182.00 (Print Quantity of 2,500).
  • 116508, Press Sheet w/o Die Cuts, $182.00 (Print Quantity of 2,500).
  • 116510*, Keepsake (Pane & DCP Set), $20.95.
  • 116516*, First-Day Cover, $1.35.
  • 116521*, Digital Color Postmark, $2.06.
  • 116531*, Stamp Deck Card, $0.95.
  • 116532*, Stamp Deck Card w/DCP, $2.41.

Technical Specifications:
RalphEllison91-single-BGv1_0Issue: Ralph Ellison
Item Number: 116500
Denomination & Type of Issue: 91-cent Definitive
Format: Pane of 20 (1 design)
Series: Literary Arts
Issue Date & City: February 18, 2014, Kansas City, MO 64108 (No Event)
Designer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Art Director: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Typographer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Artist: Kadir Nelson, Los Angeles, CA
Engraver: WRE
Modeler: CCL Label, Inc.
Manufacturing Process: Gravure
Printer: CCL Label, Inc.
Printed at: Clinton, SC 29325
Press Type: Dia Nippon Kiko (DNK)
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 30 million stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor Tagged, Block; Nonphosphored, Type III
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Processed at: CCL Label, Inc., Clinton, SC
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, 121 (Yellow)
Stamp Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): 1.42 x 0.84 in./36.07 x 21.34 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 1.56 x 0.99 in./39.62 x 25.15 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 7.25 x 5.85 in./184.15 x 148.59 mm
Plate Size: 200 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: “C” followed by five (5) single digits
Marginal Markings:
Front: Header: “LITERARY ARTS” • “29TH IN A SERIES • Plate numbers in four corners of pane
Back: Quote: “I am an invisible man.” • Verso text (Ellison’s biography) • ©2014 USPS • USPS logo • Plate position diagram • Barcode (116500) in upper right and lower left corners of pane • Promotional text

6 thoughts on “Ralph Ellison (Literary Arts)

  1. Ralph Ellison was born March 1, why is stamp ceremony Feb. 18th?
    . Only 2 weeks notification of location of ceremony, Why not a dual ceremony in Harlem, New York also. Ellison was a Harlemite, Invisible Man was a product of the environment. Ralph Ellison was part of the Harlem Renaissance, he is entombed on the grounds of Trinity Church and a sculptural depiction of the Invisihle man is loacted on 155th Street.

    • I agree with you. The U.S. Postal Service works in strange and mysterious ways. I’m still trying to figure out why the “Star-Spangled Banner” stamp, honoring a poem written in Baltimore Harbor and showing a photograph taken in Baltimore, was issued in Independence, Missouri. I’ve also heard that Cancellation Services is not happy about all these Kansas City first-days: It means all those orders for 1, 2, 7 and a dozen FDCs are coming into Cancellation Services (not the main KC post office) and clogging up the system. Foster Miller reports in The Stamp Collecting Forum that CS has had to assign one of its people just to these less-than-50 orders, which is slowing down all the dealer (50-or-more) servicing orders.

      Making issuing the Ellison stamp in KC even less sensible: The New York City post office has an active special events unit that has experience handling first-day ceremonies, and the USPS these days is all about getting extra publicity for its stamps with local events.

  2. I checked with USPS spokesman Roy Betts: The Postal Service had an “operational need” to get this stamp on sale sooner than March 1st. And it could get the stamps more quickly to Kansas City (a direct shipment) than to New York City (which is supplied by a distribution hub in Binghamton, NY, 3-1/2 hours or about 180 miles away). “Our printers are only authorized to ship to a limited number of distribution sites directly, due to security and accountability requirements for stamps, which are U.S. government securities,” Roy said in an e-mail.

  3. As a stamp collector and Griot of African-American History, your “operational need” should have been planned more carefully. Ralph Ellison’s life was more than “Invisible Man” the book, Frank Sinatra’s stamp was issued in three cities, why was that? I love Sinatra’s music, I applaud the USPS for the triple first day ceremonies. What’s done is done, in reference to the Ralph Ellison stamp, nothing will be changed for now. The bottom line is the dollar sign and the USPS will be missing out by not having a first day ceremony in Harlem. In the future, pleases be cognizant when honoring individuals that location is everythin.

  4. Of course “operational need” trumps any customer focus. With all due respect to Mr. Betts (I have dealt with him and he is a gentleman), the USPS clearly couldn’t give a pigeon-gram about what matters to collectors. And they wonder why the public doesn’t get excited about new stamp issues anymore.

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