[edited April 27, 2019]

These 4 or 5 stamps were rumored for 2013, then supposedly pushed off to… when? Speculation was they would be issued at Comic Con 2014 in San Diego, which ran July 24-27. Since science fiction is also called “speculative fiction,” it’s appropriate to speculate that the subjects are likely to include Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert.

Since 2014, we have not heard anything further about this issue. The USPS, and postal agencies worldwide, are not that keen on historic issues that do not have commercial (mass market) appeal. A tie-in to an entertainment product would help, especially a big-budget movie..

Also, current unwritten USPS practice is that in any group of four people stamps, one of the subjects is a woman or a minority. Ursula K. LeGuin, designated a Grandmaster of SF/Fantasy and winner of all the genre’s major awards, could fill that role, but she only passed away in January. Current written USPS guidelines say no stamps will be issued, except for Presidents, until at least three years have passed since their deaths. Therefore, this issue may be held up until 2021.

Frederik Pohl (who passed away September 2, 2013) might also be a strong candidate. He, Asimov and Heinlein were called the Big Three of SF in the 1950s and 1960s, but at the time the stamps were first rumored, he was still alive.

Noted Science Fiction author Robert Silverberg wrote an editorial in Asimov’s SF Magazine in support of an Asimov stamp, which you can find here (but don’t try the link at the top; it no longer works).

Other Internet entries of possible interest might be ScienceFiction.com, File 770, and Blastr (with a wonderful uncaptioned photo of Robert Heinlein autographing a book).

A word of caution to cachetmakers: Asimov and others disliked the term “Sci-Fi.” Oh, and I’m an avid reader of speculative fiction (which includes fantasy and alternate history), so I know the subject well.

As we get more information, we’ll post it in this “thread” or blog entry.