About This Stamp
With this stamp, the 32nd in the Literary Arts series, the U.S. Postal Service® honored poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) on the bicentennial of his birth. Considered by many to be the father of modern American poetry, Whitman broke away from dominant European poetic forms and experimented with free verse and vernacular expressions, writing powerfully about nearly every aspect of 19th-century America, from the nation’s natural landscapes to contemporary politics to the mundane details of everyday life.
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 soon after Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865, the poem appeared in the second edition of Drum-Taps, a collection of poems mostly written during the Civil War.
Influenced by the cadences of biblical verse, opera, and the essays and poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whitman wrote in an unconventional, organic new style that mimicked the rhythms of ordinary speech and gave a distinct voice to the American spirit. His groundbreaking works include the monumental “Song of Myself,” in which he argues that only through democracy, and the broad liberty that it promises, can the country approach the divine. Other poems include “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” the best known of his urban pieces; the intimate, reflective “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”; and “I Sing the Body Electric,” in which Whitman boldly treats the physical, sensual body as equal to the soul.
The 1855 publication of Leaves of Grass marked the beginning of what would become Whitman's lifelong masterwork. Over the next 40 years, he published several revised and expanded editions of the collection, which grew from 12 untitled pieces to nearly 400 poems. Their influence touched not only the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and the Beat Generation but also numerous 20th-century artists and musicians.
The artist for this stamp was Sam Weber. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp.
The words “THREE OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.
Stamp Artist
Sam Weber
Alaska-born illustrator Sam Weber grew up in Deep River, Ontario, Canada, drawing as a child to amuse himself and eventually others. Introduced to the idea of making art a career by an influential high school teacher, Weber graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary before pursuing an MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Weber's first stint as a professional artist came while he was still in grad school, creating images for the The New York Times Op-Ed page and becoming assistant art director there. In his short career, Weber has produced an array of editorial pieces for clients, including Rolling Stone, TIME, Penguin Books, and The New Yorker, among others. Weber has also illustrated editions of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and his favorite book, Lord of the Flies, for The Folio Society. One of Weber's most recent pieces was an image of Cleopatra designed for a National Geographic cover.
With haunting illustrations that combine elements of the natural world and imaginative details, Weber's uniquely striking images have won him acclaim in the art industry. In 2010, Weber was named one of Print magazine's 20 Under 30, and he has received silver and gold medals from the Society of Illustrators.
Weber currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His first project for the Postal Service™ was Flannery O'Connor (2015), which was followed by Sharks (2017), Henry David Thoreau (2017), and Walt Whitman (2019).