US #1024 pictures a future farmer, wearing a jacket with the organization’s emblem, standing before a farm with rolling hills in the distance.
On October 13, 1953, the US Post Office issued a 3¢ stamp honoring the 25th anniversary of the Future Farmers of America. It was issued at the place the organization was founded – Kansas City, Missouri.
US #1024 – Classic First Day CoverItem #57345C – Jimmy Carter was part of the FFA and later hosted organization leaders when he was president.
The Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act was passed in 1917 to give federal funds to states for high school classes in certain vocations – agriculture, family and consumer sciences, trades, and industries. Just a few years later, in the early 1920s, Virginia created a Future Farmers of Virginia Club for the boys in those agriculture classes. Over time, other states created their own Future Farmer organizations.
As more of these state groups were formed, they realized the next step would be to create a national organization. Therefore, in 1928, a group of these agriculture students met in Kansas City, MO, for the third annual National Congress of Vocational Agriculture Students. During that convention on November 20, 33 students from 18 states met at the Baltimore Hotel in Kansas City and officially formed the Future Farmers of America.
US #4789 – Johnny Cash was in the FFA in the mid-to-late 1940s.
Also known as the FFA, the organization they founded provided support for agricultural education and leadership training for high school students. After granting charters in 48 states across the US, the National FFA Foundation was established in 1944.
US #4470 – Garfield creator Jim Davis was chapter president in the FFA.
Four years later, the FFA participated in an international exchange program with the Young Farmers Club of Great Britain. Today, the FFA sends more than 350 students to 25 countries annually to share knowledge and promote agricultural careers. In the US and its territories, there are 735,038 (685,226 of whom are alumni) members in 8,817 chapters, making it one of the largest youth organizations in the country.
On October 12, 1901, the Executive Mansion, the president’s official residence and workplace, was renamed the White House.
In 1792, President George Washington held a public competition to find a design for the president’s home and office in Washington, DC. Thomas Jefferson was among those that submitted designs, but James Hoban created the winning plan.
US #1338A was the first multi-colored coil stamp.
Hoban’s design incorporated features of several Irish and French country homes. The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Though Washington oversaw the building’s construction, he retired from the presidency before it was completed. On November 1, 1800, John Adams and his wife became the first presidential couple to live in the building, though it was still unfinished.
US #2609 was issued for the White House’s 200th anniversary.
At this time, the building was often referred to as the President’s House. Over time, it would also be called the President’s Palace and the Presidential Mansion. Many opposed use of the word palace because it had indicated royalty. The first known use of the term “White House” appeared around 1811.
In fact, there has been a popular myth that the building was first called the White House after the War of 1812. During that war, the British burned much of Washington, DC, including the President’s House. A common tale claimed that after American forces reclaimed the capital and worked on repairing it, they painted the building white to cover the burn marks. While there are records of the building being called the White House before the war, its use did increase after the war.
US #3445 was issued for the 200th anniversary of the Adamses moving into the White House.
While some would start to call it the White House, the official name had been the Executive Mansion since 1810. This was the phrase that appeared on letterheads and official documents.
US #UX143 – White House Postal Card
That name would remain in official use for over 90 years. Then on October 12, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt decided to officially change the name to that one used for decades. He ordered that all White House stationary now read “White House – Washington.” Though the stationary would have a slight change, with Washington being centered under White House, the named has remained in use ever since.
Item #59260A – 1992 White House Bicentennial Coin Cover
US #965 was designed to resemble the Famous Americans stamps.
Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone was born on October 11, 1872, in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. He served on the court for over 20 years, including over four years as chief justice.
Stone attended Amherst College before earning his bachelor of law degree from Columbia Law School in 1898. He practiced law in New York City for a few years before returning to Columbia as a teacher and later the dean.
During World War I, Stone served on the War Department’s board of inquiry, reviewing nearly 3,000 cases of conscientious objectors that had been denied by their draft boards. After the war, he grew increasingly unhappy at Columbia and resigned his deanship, joining a prestigious New York law firm.
US #965 – Classic First Day Cover
In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge (who had known Stone at Amherst) appointed him US attorney general. Coolidge believed Stone would be a fitting person to oversee all of the investigations into the scandals of the Harding administration. Among his first acts in this new office was appointing J. Edgar Hoover to head of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI).
US #965 – Fleetwood Plate Block First Day CoverUS #1343 – Under Stone’s leadership, the FBI became the most efficient police organization in the country.
Stone directed Hoover to model the agency after Britain’s Scotland Yard, and it soon was more efficient than any other police organization in the nation. As attorney general, Stone personally argued many of the department’s cases in federal court and led an anti-trust investigation into the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).
Following the election of 1924, Justice Joseph McKenna resigned from the Supreme Court. Early the next year, President Coolidge nominated Stone to replace him as an associate justice. He was confirmed a month later by a vote of 71 to 6.
US #965 – Plate Block First Day CoverUS #1894 – Stone served as chief justice of the court from 1941 to 1946.
During Stone’s first few years on the court, much of its focus was on the relationship between businesses and government. Though he was a conservative, Stone often sided with the liberal justices. In the 1930s, he, Louis Brandeis, and Benjamin Cardozo became known as the Three Musketeers of the Supreme Court. They supported President Roosevelt’s New Deal, even as the other justices opposed it.
In 1941, Roosevelt nominated Stone for chief justice to replace the exiting Charles Evans Hughes. He remained in the post until his death. During Stone’s years as chief justice, views of Constitutional laws were changing. Frequently, the court was divided. Although Stone was a conservative, he often voted to uphold liberal measures. In 1946, Stone suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on April 22.
US #4525 features a painting based on a 1958 photo.
Stage and screen actress Helen Hayes was born on October 10, 1900, in Washington, DC. Dubbed “The First Lady of the American Theater,” she’s one of just 23 people to win competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards (often referred to as EGOTs).
Hayes’s grandparents had come to America during the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s. Her mother was an aspiring actress and her father worked a number of odd jobs, including as a clerk at the Washington Patent Office.
From a young age, Hayes was drawn to performing on stage. At the age of five she made her stage debut singing at Washington’s Belasco Theatre (across the street from the White House). By the time she was 10, Hayes had appeared in her first short film, Jean and the Calico Doll.
Meanwhile, Hayes also attended prestigious schools, such as the Dominican Academy in New York City. While there, she appeared in The Old Dutch, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, among other plays. She graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart Convent in 1917. Hayes married playwright Charles MacArthur in 1928 and soon moved to Hollywood after he signed a studio deal.
US #4421 – Cooper was the 15th honoree in the Legends of Hollywood Series.
Hayes made her first sound film in 1931 – The Sin of Madelon Claudet. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the film’s title role. She went on to star in such other Hollywood films as Arrowsmith (with Ronald Colman), A Farewell to Arms (with Gary Cooper), The White Sister (with Clark Gable), What Every Woman Knows (which she’d previously done on Broadway) and Vanessa: Her Love Story.
Great Britain #BLACK1 – The world’s first postage stamp pictures Queen Victoria.
Despite her success as a Hollywood film actress, Hayes was more comfortable with the stage. In fact, she once said, “I don’t think I’m much good in pictures… I have a beautiful dream I’m elegant on stage.” So in 1935, Hayes returned to New York. For the next three years she held the title role of Victoria Regina alongside Vincent Price. Hayes played England’s queen. Victoria’s namesake, the queen of Spain, was reportedly quite impressed by Hayes’s complete mastery of her grandmother’s mannerisms.
Years later, Hayes worked on the Broadway revival of J.M. Barrie’s (best known for Peter Pan) play, Mary Rose. Then in 1952 Hayes became the first person to win the Sarah Siddons Award for her performances and support of Chicago theaters. She would win the award again in 1969.
US #4525 – Colorano Silk Cachet First Day Cover
Hayes returned to Hollywood in the 1950s and found even greater success. She starred in My Son John and Anastasia (along side Ingrid Bergman). She later won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Airport. After that Hayes appeared in a number of Disney films including Herbie Rides Again, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, and Candleshoe. Hayes made her last Broadway appearance in the 1970 revival of Harvey.
US #3187a – from the Celebrate the Century Sheet
Throughout her career, Hayes took time off from acting to care for her sick husband and following the death of her daughter to polio in 1949. In her grief, Hayes founded the Mary MacArthur Fund to help fight the disease. Doctor Jonas Salk credited Hayes with helping to fund his lifesaving vaccine.
In 1955, the Fulton Theatre in New York City was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre. However, in the 1980s businessmen wanted to demolish the building to construct a hotel. Though she had no stake in the building, they asked for her consent, which she granted. Parts from the theater were later used in the Shakespeare Center. Two other theaters were later renamed in Hayes’s honor. There is also a Helen Hayes Award for theater in Washington, DC.
Hayes is often called the “First Lady of the American Theatre,” though it’s unknown just where or when this title originated. Her friend Katherine Cornell has also received this title, and both women believed the other deserved it. As one critic put it, “Cornell played every queen as though she were a woman, whereas Hayes played every woman as though she were a queen.”
Hayes was also friends with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. Together they founded the National Wildflower Research Center (now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) in Austin Texas in 1982. Today the center is one of the top advocates for rare and at-risk plant species.
US #4716 was issued for Lady Bird Johnson’s 100th birthday.
In her later years, Hayes devoted her time to writing and philanthropy. She was a founding member of the Riverside Shakespeare Company and on the board of directors for the New York Council of the Girls Scouts. She also made brief returns to the stage for benefits at the Shakespeare Center where she and several other performers read aloud A Christmas Carol. Hayes’s most devoted work though, was the Helen Hayes Rehabilitation Hospital. She began working with the hospital in the 1940s and joined its Board of Visitors in 1944. Over the years she worked tirelessly to secure the hospital funding, spearhead fund-raising events, and making numerous personal appearances. The hospital was named in her honor in 1974 and she remained on the board until her death.
US #4525 – Fleetwood First Day Cover with Digital Color Cancel
Having long suffered health issues, Hayes died on March 17, 1993. That day, the lights of Broadway were dimmed in her honor. Hayes is one of just 23 people to win competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards (often referred to as EGOTs). Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, as well as the National Medal of the Arts.
US #2506-07 – These US joint-issue stamps were issued on this day in 1990.
On September 28, 1990, the US Postal Service issued two stamps commemorating the Compacts of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The stamps marked a relationship that recognized the two Pacific territories as self-governing and sovereign while maintaining close ties with the United States.
The story began after World War II. Japan had controlled many islands in the western Pacific under a League of Nations mandate before the war. After Japan’s defeat, the United Nations created the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. The United States administered this strategic trusteeship. It included the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Over time, the Caroline Islands developed into the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
US #2506-07 – Combination First Day Cover Canceled in Micronesia
The Trust Territory was not a single future country. Its island districts had different languages, histories, political goals, and relationships with the United States. During the 1970s and 1980s, local leaders and US officials negotiated separate political arrangements.
The Northern Mariana Islands chose a commonwealth relationship in political union with the United States. Its covenant took effect in 1978. Palau negotiated a Compact of Free Association but did not become independent until 1994, when its compact entered into force. The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands chose free association.
Marshall Islands #381 – Joint-Issue Stamp from the Marshall Islands
A Compact of Free Association did not make Micronesia or the Marshall Islands US territories. Each adopted its own constitution and government, controlled its internal affairs, and became sovereign. The agreements also provided US financial assistance and gave the United States responsibility for defense and security. In return, the United States retained certain strategic rights in the region.
The Compact with the Marshall Islands entered into force on October 21, 1986. The Compact with the Federated States of Micronesia followed on November 3. The United States formally recognized both countries as independent that year. The agreements ended their former status as United Nations trust territories, although the United Nations did not formally terminate the trusteeship for all of the former territory until later.
Micronesia #124-26 – Strip of Three Micronesia Joint-Issue Stamps
The 1990 stamp issue was a coordinated release involving the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. The Postal Service issued a se-tenant pair of 25-cent stamps, meaning the two designs were printed attached to one another. Micronesia issued a strip of three stamps, while the Marshall Islands issued one stamp, bringing the total to six related designs.
The US stamp for Micronesia paired the Micronesian flag with the US flag and the USS Constitution. The Marshall Islands stamp showed that country’s flag, a traditional canoe, and a stick chart. Marshallese navigators made stick charts from thin coconut ribs and shells. The charts helped teach how ocean swells, currents, and islands related to one another across long distances.
Micronesia #253 – Micronesia reissued this stamp in 1996 for the 10th anniversary of the compact.
All six stamps were dedicated on September 28, 1990, at the Dean Acheson Auditorium in the US Department of State in Washington, DC. Additional ceremonies took place in Palikir, Pohnpei, and in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. The joint issue used postage stamps to recognize a diplomatic arrangement while also highlighting Pacific navigation traditions and national symbols.
US #1857 was issued a day after Carson’s 74th birthday.
On September 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book that challenged Americans to consider what happened after pesticides were sprayed. Drawing on scientific studies, government records, and reports from affected communities, Carson argued that chemicals meant to kill insects could also disrupt entire ecosystems.
Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She developed an interest in writing as a child, but she also loved the natural world around her family’s small farm. At the Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham University, she began as an English major before changing to biology. She graduated in 1929 and later earned a master’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University.
US #1857 – Colorano Silk Cachet First Day Cover
In 1935, Carson began writing radio scripts for the US Bureau of Fisheries, a predecessor of today’s US Fish and Wildlife Service. The following year, she became a junior aquatic biologist. She was one of the first women hired by the agency through the civil-service system. Her work included writing reports, editing publications, and explaining marine science to the public. She remained with the federal government for 15 years and eventually became editor-in-chief of its publications.
Carson also wrote books about the sea. Under the Sea-Wind appeared in 1941. The Sea Around Us, published in 1951, became a bestseller and won the National Book Award for nonfiction. Its success allowed her to leave government service in 1952 and write full time. Her third sea book, The Edge of the Sea, followed in 1955. These books established her as a careful researcher who could explain science in clear, vivid language.
US #1857 – Classic First Day Cover
During the 1940s and ’50s, the United States widely used synthetic pesticides. DDT had helped control insect-borne disease and protect crops. Yet it also persisted in the environment. Carson became concerned that pesticides were being applied over large areas with too little attention to their effects on birds, fish, mammals, beneficial insects, soil, and water.
US #1857 – Fleetwood First Day Cover
Her investigation began in earnest after a 1958 letter from Massachusetts writer Olga Owens Huckins. Huckins described birds dying after aerial spraying for mosquitoes near her property. Carson spent four years examining scientific research and consulting specialists in toxicology, ecology, medicine, entomology, and wildlife biology. She did not argue that every pesticide use should end. Instead, she criticized indiscriminate spraying and urged more selective methods, stronger oversight, and greater use of biological controls.
Silent Spring first appeared in three installments in The New Yorker during the summer of 1962. Houghton Mifflin published the book on September 27. Its title referred to a spring in which birds no longer sang because poison had moved through the food chain. Carson described insecticides such as DDT, dieldrin, and heptachlor as chemicals capable of remaining in soil and water, accumulating in animals, and affecting species beyond their intended targets.
US #1410-13 – When the EPA canceled most remaining crop uses of DDT in 1972, it cited the chemical’s persistence, movement through the environment, buildup in food chains, toxic effects, and the availability of less-harmful alternatives.
The book faced a forceful response from chemical manufacturers and some agricultural interests. Critics questioned Carson’s scientific qualifications and accused her of opposing modern agriculture. Carson answered that pest control should be judged by its long-term consequences, not only by its immediate results. Her documentation helped bring a technical subject into public debate.
President John F. Kennedy asked his Science Advisory Committee to examine pesticide issues after the book appeared. Its 1963 report supported the need for stronger controls and further research. Carson also testified before a Senate subcommittee in June 1963. That year, she received the Audubon Medal and the Cullum Medal from the American Geographical Society.
Marshall Islands #711 includes a stamp honoring Carson.
Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, less than two years after Silent Spring was published. She did not live to see the Environmental Protection Agency created in 1970 or the EPA’s 1972 cancellation of most remaining US crop uses of DDT. Those actions resulted from scientific research, public concern, legal challenges, and government decisions over many years. Still, Silent Spring played a major role in widening public concern about pesticide regulation and environmental contamination.
US #1484 includes a scene from Porgy and Bess and is from the American Arts issue.
George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwine on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. A successful composer and pianist, he created beloved orchestral compositions, popular jazz standards, as well as Broadway and Hollywood hits.
US #1484 – Fleetwood First Day Cover
Born to Russian immigrants, George was the second of four children. His older brother Ira would also grow up to be a songwriter. The family moved frequently as their father explored a variety of business ventures. They spent most of their childhood in the Yiddish Theater District. George and Ira often went to local Yiddish theaters and George occasionally performed on stage as an extra.
Gershwin showed little interest in music until he was 10 years old. It was at that time he heard a friend play violin and was moved by the sound. Shortly after, his parents bought Ira a piano, but George ended up falling in love with it and playing it more. George then sought out a piano teacher, studying under Charles Hambitzer until 1918.
US #1484 – Colorano Silk Cachet First Day Cover
Gershwin dropped out of school at 15 to work as a song plugger in New York’s Tin Pan Alley. He was paid $15 a week to perform songs to help sell sheet music. Gershwin then published his first song, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em, When You’ve Got ‘Em, You Don’t Want ‘Em,” in 1916, earning 50¢. That same year he began producing hundreds of songs for different music roll companies and self-playing pianos.
Gershwin briefly worked in vaudeville and found some success with his 1917 ragtime song, “Rialto Ripples.” He got his first national hit in 1919 with “Swanee,” which was made popular by performer Al Jolson. The first production for which he wrote the entire score was La, La Lucille (1919). Gershwin then collaborated with William Daly on the Broadway musicals Piccadilly to Broadway (1920), For Goodness’ Sake (1922), and Our Nell (1923).
US #1484 – Classic First Day Cover
Gershwin then composed his first major composition, Rhapsody in Blue, in 1924. It became his most popular work, emphasizing his talent for blending different musical styles, such as jazz and classical. In 1922, he worked on the experimental jazz opera, Blue Monday.
In the 1920s, Gershwin went to Paris for a while to study under French composers, but was turned down. Maurice Ravel told him, “Why become a second-rate Ravel when you’re already a first-rate Gershwin.” While in France, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris, which went on to become an American and European standard.
US #3345 – The first song the Gershwin brothers composed together was “The Real American Folk Song” (1918).
Over the course of his career, George and his brother Ira collaborated on more than 20 productions, including Lady Be Good (1924), Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), Show Girl (1929), and Girl Crazy (1930). These included popular songs “Embraceable You” and I Got Rhythm.” Their 1931 musical Of Thee I Sing became the first musical comedy to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
US #2768 – from the Broadway Musicals Issue
In the summer of 1934, Gershwin visited DuBose Heyward, author of the novel Porgy. Gershwin was inspired by this meeting to compose the music for the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). It was initially a commercial failure, as critics couldn’t decide if it was an opera or Broadway musical. It eventually became the most popular opera written by an American composer.
Grenada #2882-83 includes a stamp honoring Gershwin.
In 1935, Gershwin moved to Hollywood, California, and turned his attention to films. He wrote Shall We Dance for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and A Damsel in Distress for Astaire, Joan Fontaine, and Gracie Allen. In 1937, Gershwin began suffering from painful headaches, coordination issues, and blackouts. He collapsed on the night of July 9 and was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. They rushed a neurosurgeon across the country to remove it, but Gershwin died on July 11, 1937 at just 38 years old. His death at such a young age was a shock to the world. A memorial concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl that September.
US #5683 honors Silverstein and pictures an illustration from The Giving Tree.
Shel Silverstein was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Before he became known for children’s poetry, he had worked as a military cartoonist, a magazine illustrator, a playwright, a recording artist, and a songwriter.
Silverstein grew up on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He attended Roosevelt High School and briefly studied at the University of Illinois before leaving college. He later attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. As a teenager, he began drawing cartoons because, as he later explained, he was not interested in sports and did not have a car. Drawing gave him a way to create his own world on paper.
US #5683a – Scarce Imperforate Stamp
In 1953, Silverstein was drafted into the US Army. He served in Japan and Korea and became a cartoonist for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. From 1954 to 1956, he drew the comic feature Take Ten. The experience gave him regular deadlines and a wide audience. He later said his work for Stars and Stripes helped launch his career.
After leaving the Army, Silverstein began selling cartoons to magazines. He also published collections of adult humor and drawings, including Take Ten and Now Here’s My Plan. His early work was often aimed at adults and could be satirical, dark, or irreverent.
US #2152 – Drafted during the Korean War, Silverstein drew cartoons for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes from 1954 to 1956. He later called the job the start of his professional career.US #4789 – Cash ‘s recording of “A Boy Named Sue” reached No. 1 on the country chart and No. 2 on the pop chart.
Music became another part of his career. Silverstein wrote songs in folk, country, and popular styles. He wrote “A Boy Named Sue,” which Johnny Cash recorded live at San Quentin State Prison in 1969. Cash’s recording became a major hit and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. Silverstein also wrote “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’” recorded by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show; “One’s on the Way,” recorded by Loretta Lynn; and “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” later recorded by several artists.
Silverstein did not originally plan to write for children. The illustrator and author Tomi Ungerer introduced him to Ursula Nordstrom, the influential children’s-book editor at Harper & Row. Nordstrom believed Silverstein’s spare drawings and unusual sense of humor could work for young readers. Their collaboration led to books that used few words, black-and-white line drawings, and open-ended stories.
US #3125 – A Light in the Attic spent 182 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, an unusually long run for a children’s poetry collection.
In 1963, Silverstein published Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, about a lion who leaves the wild to become a famous performer. The next year brought The Giving Tree, the story of a boy and a tree whose relationship changes as the boy grows older. The book has been interpreted in different ways. Some readers see a story of generosity, while others focus on its unequal relationship and the tree’s losses. Silverstein did not offer a single moral explanation for it.
His poetry collections brought his work into classrooms and libraries. Where the Sidewalk Ends, published in 1974, combined poems and drawings about children, animals, school, fears, wishes, and impossible situations. “Sick” follows a child inventing increasingly strange excuses to avoid school. “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” turns a household chore into an outrageous disaster. Silverstein’s illustrations often supplied a second joke or changed how a poem could be read.
A Light in the Attic followed in 1981. It became one of the most successful poetry books for children of its era and spent years on The New York Times bestseller list. Silverstein recorded an album of poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends, which won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children in 1984. His later books included Falling Up in 1996 and The Missing Piece and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, two fable-like stories about independence and relationships.
US #5683 – Fleetwood First Day Cover with Digital Color Cancel
Silverstein kept a low public profile and rarely gave interviews in his later years. He died of a heart attack at his home in Key West, Florida, on May 10, 1999, at age 68. In 2005, Runny Babbit, a collection of poems built around switched beginning sounds in words, was published after his death.
US #3104 was issued for Fitzgerald’s 100th birthday.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He would become one of the best-known writers of the Jazz Age, recording its energy, wealth, restlessness, and disappointments in novels and short stories.
US #UX263 – Princeton 250th Anniversary First Day Postcard
Fitzgerald was named for a distant relative on his father’s side, Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His parents were Edward and Mary McQuillan Fitzgerald. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Buffalo, New York, where his father worked for Procter & Gamble. They also lived for a time in Syracuse before returning to St. Paul in 1908, after Edward Fitzgerald lost his job.
Fitzgerald showed an early interest in writing. At St. Paul Academy, he published a detective story, “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage,” in the school newspaper. In 1911, his parents sent him to the Newman School, a Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. There he worked with Father Sigourney Fay, an influential teacher and mentor. Fay encouraged Fitzgerald’s writing and later served as a model for Monsignor Darcy in Fitzgerald’s first novel.
US #3104 – Colorano Silk First Day Cover
Fitzgerald entered Princeton University in 1913. He did not earn a degree, but he immersed himself in campus writing. He contributed to the Princeton Triangle Club’s musical productions, wrote for the Princeton Tiger humor magazine, and worked on the Nassau Lit literary magazine. He also began a novel. Scribner’s praised its promise but rejected the manuscript. His grades suffered, and he left Princeton in 1917 while on academic probation.
That year, the United States entered World War I. Fitzgerald joined the Army and wrote a first version of his novel, then called The Romantic Egotist, while in training. Scribner’s rejected it but encouraged him to submit future work. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama. There he met Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice. The Armistice ended the war before Fitzgerald’s unit was sent overseas.
US #3104 – Mystic First Day Cover picturing Fitzgerald and His Family
Fitzgerald had already experienced another formative romance. In 1915, while still a Princeton student, he met Ginevra King, a wealthy Chicago-area debutante, in St. Paul. Their relationship ended after about two years. Her world of money and social status helped shape several of his fictional young women, including Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise. It also influenced Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.
After leaving the Army, Fitzgerald moved to New York and worked for the Barron Collier advertising agency. He wrote short stories in his spare time and revised The Romantic Egotist. Scribner’s accepted the new version, retitled This Side of Paradise. Published in March 1920, the novel became a major success with young readers. Fitzgerald’s improved prospects persuaded Zelda to renew their engagement, and they married in New York on April 3, 1920.
US #3184b – from the Celebrate the Century Series
The Fitzgeralds became associated with the decade’s parties, fashions, and new social freedoms. Yet their life was expensive. Fitzgerald supported himself in large part by selling short stories to magazines, especially The Saturday Evening Post. He later wrote for Collier’s and Esquire. Magazine work brought needed income, but it also took time from his novels.
US #2418 was issued for Hemingway’s 90th birthday.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, appeared in 1922. In 1925, he published The Great Gatsby, a compact novel about ambition, class, love, and illusion on Long Island. It received respectful reviews but did not become a major commercial success during Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Its reputation grew after his death, especially when Armed Services Editions distributed it to American troops during World War II.
Fitzgerald and Zelda lived in France during much of the 1920s and became part of the American expatriate community in Paris. There he formed a complicated friendship with Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald’s fourth completed novel, Tender Is the Night, appeared in 1934 after years of work. Its sales were disappointing.
He returned to Hollywood in 1937 under contract to MGM. Fitzgerald worked on screenplays and received his only screen credit for Three Comrades in 1938. He also began an unfinished novel about the movie business, later published as The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Hollywood on December 21, 1940, at age 44. His work was reassessed in the years after his death, and The Great Gatsby became a lasting part of American literature.
