A stamp honoring the poet Walt Whitman will go on sale Sept.12.
The Walt Whitman Birthplace will host a celebration of the release of the stamp, which will be non-denominated priced at the 3-ounce rate, in one design, meaning there is no value printed on the stamp. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
The stamp features a portrait of Whitman based on a photograph taken by Frank Pearsall in 1869. In the background, a hermit thrush sitting on the branch of a lilac bush recalls “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom‘d,” an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln written by Whitman soon after Lincoln‘s assassination on April 14, 1865.
With this stamp, the 32nd issue in the Literary Arts series, the Postal Service™ honors poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) on the bicentennial of his birth.
Celebrate Whitman’s 200th Birthday, and His Poetry, at Birthplace