Stephen Vincent Benet, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and writer, is being immortalized by the U.S. Postal Service on the centenary of his birth.
In 1928, Benet wrote "John Brown's Body," a book-length epic poem on the Civil War for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. His poem "The Devil and Daniel Webster" was adapted into a folk opera in 1939 and made into a movie in 1941.The new 32-cent stamp features a portrait of Benet with a background showing a detail of the Robert Shaw Civil War Memorial.
Postmaster General William Henderson said, "The Stephen Vincent Benet stamp serves as both a salute to the great writer's talent and a reminder of the heroism and tragedy that marked the Civil War."
A year after his death in 1944, Benet won his second Pulitzer for "Western Star," an unfinished narrative poem.
The Benet stamp is the 15th in the Literary Arts series. Last year's stamp in this series honored Thornton Wilder. Others receiving stamp tributes included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.
First-day-of-issue postmarks of the Benet stamp are available.
You may purchase the new stamp at your local post office by affixing a 32-cent stamp to an envelope, addressing the envelope and placing it inside a larger one addressed to: Stephen Vincent Benet stamp, Postmaster, Washington St., Harpers Ferry, W. Va., 25425-9991.
Requests must be postmarked by Aug. 21.
- Syd Kronish