# 5414 - 2019 85c Literary Arts: Walt Whitman

US #5414
2019 Walt Whitman – Literary Arts Series

• Honors renowned American poet, Walt Whitman
• The 32nd stamp in the Literary Arts series

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Series:  Literary Arts
Value:  85¢ Three-Ounce Mail Rate
First Day of Issue:  September 12, 2019
First Day City:  Huntington Station, New York
Quantity Issued:  12,000,000
Printed by:  Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method:  Offset, Microprint
Format:  Panes of 20
Tagging:  Nonphosphored Type III, Block Tag

Why the stamp was issued:  To celebrate one of the most well-known American poets in history – Walt Whitman.

About the stamp design:  Pictures a portrait of Whitman based on an 1869 photograph taken by Frank Pearsall. The background pictures a hermit thrush on a lilac bush, a reference to Whitman’s elegy for President Abraham Lincoln entitled “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d.” The stamp colors are all different hues of purple (lilac) to complement this theme. Stamp artwork by Sam Weber.

First Day City:  The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum in South Huntington, New York.

About the Literary Arts Series:  The Literary Arts Series began in 1979 with a John Steinbeck stamp. 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:  Walt Whitman (1819-92) was one of America’s most influential poets. Known as the “Father of Free Verse,” he pushed the limits of poetry and saw the connection between the poet and society.

Whitman dropped out of school when he was 11 to support his family and was self-taught after that. He spent years teaching and working at newspapers, but writing was his passion. In 1850, he began working on his first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass. Self-published in 1855, it received both praise and criticism for its controversial imagery. Over the next 40 years, Whitman reworked the collection, expanding it from 12 poems to over 400 in its final edition.

During the Civil War, Whitman volunteered as a nurse in army hospitals and penned patriotic poems for the North. He was shaken by Abraham Lincoln’s death at the end of the war and wrote multiple poems about the tremendous loss. Among these was “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” The imagery was inspired by lilacs he had seen in his family’s yard the day Lincoln died. The poem captured the nation’s transition from grief to acceptance.

At a time when America was re-forging its national identity in the wake of the Civil War, Whitman became the country’s first “poet of democracy.” As one poet stated, Whitman is “America’s poet… He is America.”