US #3308
1999 Ayn Rand – Literary Arts Series
- Honors Russian-American author Ayn Rand
- The 16th stamp in the Literary Arts Series
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Series: Literary Arts
Value: 33¢ First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue: April 22, 1999
First Day City: New York, New York
Qu... more
US #3308
1999 Ayn Rand – Literary Arts Series
- Honors Russian-American author Ayn Rand
- The 16th stamp in the Literary Arts Series
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Series: Literary Arts
Value: 33¢ First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue: April 22, 1999
First Day City: New York, New York
Quantity Issued: 42,500,000
Printed by: Printed for Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. By Sterling Sommer of Tonawanda, New York
Printing Method: Offset
Format: Panes of 20 (Vertical 5 across, 4 down)
Perforations: 11.2 (Wista stroke perforator)
Tagging: Phosphored paper
Why the stamp was issued: To commemorate Russian-American author Ayn Rand and her famous works of literature.
About the stamp design: Pictures an art deco-style design by artist Nicholas Gaetano of Fletcher, North Carolina. The portrait was based on a photograph of Ayn Rand taken in 1936 by Pach Brothers studio in New York City. Gaetano made half of Rand’s face in blue shadow and the other half in gold and orange light.
Special design details: The right side of Rand’s face is partially obscured by skyscrapers, a nod to her memory of seeing the Manhattan skyline for the first time when she arrived in America by ship. She said she was moved to tears and used that feeling as inspiration for writing her famous novel The Fountainhead.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at the Spring Postage Stamp Mega-Event at Show Pier 92 in New York City. It was a fitting location given Ayn Rand spent much of her life in New York.
About the Literary Arts Series: The Literary Arts Series began in 1979 with a John Steinbeck stamp. (Click here to get every stamp in the series issued from 1979 to 2021.) The objective of the Literary Arts Series is to honor America’s most renowned authors. As the USPS put it, “These skillful wordsmiths spun our favorite tales – and American history along with them.” The series honors both well-known and lesser-known authors, making it like an encapsulation of America’s rich and varied literary history.
History the stamp represents: Born in Russia, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) experienced both the Kerensky and Bolshevik revolutions. During her years there, she witnessed the increase in Communist control and disintegration of personal freedoms. After studying philosophy and screen writing in Russia, Rand obtained permission to leave the country in 1925. She arrived in the United States the next year.
On Rand’s second day in Hollywood, movie producer Cecil B. DeMille offered her a ride to the back lot of his studio and gave her a job as an extra. It was there that she met actor Frank O’Connor, whom she married in 1929.
Ayn Rand’s two best-known novels present a moral and political philosophy based on individualism and self-interest. In The Fountainhead (1943), an architect destroys a housing project because his design was changed without his knowledge or consent. In Atlas Shrugged (1957), a strike by the men of the mind proves society can’t survive without creative genius. Both books are still in print, with combined sales over 10 million.
Ayn Rand was also a stamp collector, with particular interest in issues from the Ryuku Islands and Iceland. In an article she wrote for the Minkus Stamp Journal in 1971, Rand noted that the $1 Western Cattle in Storm stamp of 1898 was among her favorites.
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