About This Stamp
The 29th stamp in the Literary Arts series honors author Ralph Ellison (1913–1994). With his 1952 novel Invisible Man, a masterpiece of 20th-century fiction, Ellison drew on a wide range of narrative and cultural traditions, shedding vivid light on the African-American experience while setting a new benchmark for all American novelists.
The stamp art is an oil-on-panel painting featuring a portrait of Ellison based on a black-and-white photograph by Ellison’s friend Gordon Parks, a renowned staff photographer for Life magazine. The photo appeared on the back of the dust jacket of the first edition of Invisible Man in 1952. The background of the stamp art shows a Harlem street at twilight.
Drawing deeply on European and American literature as well as jazz, the blues, African-American folklore, and popular culture, Invisible Man won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison’s nonfiction writing, especially the 1964 collection Shadow and Act, has also been praised for providing touchstones for black artists who loved American culture but often felt excluded by it.
The artwork for this stamp was created by Kadir Nelson. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp.
Sold in sheets of 20, the 91-cent Ralph Ellison stamp is designed for the First-Class Mail® three-ounce rate.
Photo of Ralph Ellison courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
Kadir Nelson
Kadir Nelson, an award-winning American artist and author, has been drawing since the age of three. His paintings can be found in galleries, museums, and private collections worldwide, and in the permanent collections of notable institutions, among them the United States House of Representatives, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Nelson has also written and illustrated more than 30 acclaimed children’s books: We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (2009); and Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (2011). He recently created 30 original paintings for Blue Sky White Stars, a picture book celebrating the American flag and its history, as well as original artwork for the upcoming picture book, The Undefeated (2019) written by Kwame Alexander.
An honors graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, Nelson began his career as the lead conceptual artist for the Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He was tapped by Sony to create the album cover artwork for the Michael Jackson posthumously released album, “Michael.” His artwork regularly appears on covers of The New Yorker magazine. Other clients have included Sports Illustrated, the Coca-Cola Company, The New York Times, and Major League Baseball.
Honored by the Society of Illustrators with the Hamilton King Award and multiple gold medals, Nelson has also won the Robert F. Sibert Medal as well as two Caldecott Honors, numerous Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator awards, the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book awards, and NAACP Image Awards.
His latest design for the U.S. Postal Service is the 2019 Marvin Gaye stamp. Previous stamp designs honored Richard Wright and Anna Julia Cooper (2009); Negro Leagues Baseball (2010); Major League Baseball All-Stars (2012); Althea Gibson (2013); and Ralph Ellison and Wilt Chamberlain (2014).