Charles W. Chesnutt stamp

On January 31, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Postal Service™ will issue a 41-cent, Charles W. Chesnutt commemorative stamp in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 462800).

With the 31st stamp in the Black Heritage series, the U.S. Postal Service honors Charles W. Chesnutt, a pioneering writer recognized today as a major innovator and singular voice among turn-of-the-century literary realists who probed the color line in American life.

According to a USPS news releases, art director Howard Paine of Delaplane, Virginia wanted a stamp that emphasized Chesnutt’s intelligence and dignity; the portrait painted by stamp artist Kazuhiko Sano of Mill Valley, California, is based on a 1908 photograph from the special collections of Fisk University’s Franklin Library.

For more on Charles W. Chesnutt, click here.