37c James Baldwin stamp

With this twentieth stamp in the Literary Arts Series, the Postal Service honors James Baldwin, one of the foremost American writers of the twentieth century. Artist Thomas Blackshear II based his portrait on a black-and-white photograph of Baldwin taken around 1960, probably in New York. The stamp background is evocative of Baldwin's semi-autobiographical novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain," set in Harlem.

The 37-cent James Baldwin commemorative stamp was issued in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of twenty on July 23, 2004, in New York, New York. Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Virginia, designed the stamp.

Ashton-Potter (USA), Ltd., produced 50 million stamps in the offset process with microprinting "USPS."

Reference: Postal Bulletin (June 24, 2004).

Scott Catalogue USA: 3871

Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Museum ID: 2005.2003.46