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#3871
2004 37c Literary Arts: James Baldwin
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U.S. #3871
37¢ James Baldwin
Literary Arts
Issue Date: July 23, 2004
City: New York, NY
Quantity: 60,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: Serpentine die cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored
James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, the eldest of nine children raised largely in poverty under the strict religious guidance of his stepfather, a Pentecostal preacher. That upbringing shaped much of his early writing, including his first and most celebrated novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953. The book drew heavily on his own childhood, following a single day in the life of a teenage boy grappling with faith, family, and identity in a storefront Harlem church, and it established Baldwin as one of the most promising literary voices of his generation.
In 1948, Baldwin moved to Paris, where he found greater freedom to write openly about race and sexuality, subjects that shaped much of his later work. His 1956 novel Giovanni's Room broke new ground for its frank exploration of a same sex relationship, a bold subject for its time. Baldwin returned to the United States as the civil rights movement gained momentum, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and channeling the moment's urgency into The Fire Next Time, a 1963 essay collection that became a national bestseller and landed him on the cover of Time magazine.
This stamp, the twentieth issue in the Postal Service's Literary Arts series, portrays Baldwin against a backdrop evoking Go Tell It on the Mountain and the Harlem setting so central to his life and work. Baldwin died in 1987 at his home in the south of France, leaving behind a body of essays, novels, and plays that remain foundational to American literature on race, identity, and belonging.
U.S. #3871
37¢ James Baldwin
Literary Arts
Issue Date: July 23, 2004
City: New York, NY
Quantity: 60,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: Serpentine die cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored
James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, the eldest of nine children raised largely in poverty under the strict religious guidance of his stepfather, a Pentecostal preacher. That upbringing shaped much of his early writing, including his first and most celebrated novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953. The book drew heavily on his own childhood, following a single day in the life of a teenage boy grappling with faith, family, and identity in a storefront Harlem church, and it established Baldwin as one of the most promising literary voices of his generation.
In 1948, Baldwin moved to Paris, where he found greater freedom to write openly about race and sexuality, subjects that shaped much of his later work. His 1956 novel Giovanni's Room broke new ground for its frank exploration of a same sex relationship, a bold subject for its time. Baldwin returned to the United States as the civil rights movement gained momentum, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and channeling the moment's urgency into The Fire Next Time, a 1963 essay collection that became a national bestseller and landed him on the cover of Time magazine.
This stamp, the twentieth issue in the Postal Service's Literary Arts series, portrays Baldwin against a backdrop evoking Go Tell It on the Mountain and the Harlem setting so central to his life and work. Baldwin died in 1987 at his home in the south of France, leaving behind a body of essays, novels, and plays that remain foundational to American literature on race, identity, and belonging.
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