PrintFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts: Rita Peer 202-268-2126
April 22, 2005
Postal Service Website: usps.com
Stamp News Release Number: 05-022
PULITZER WINNER ROBERT PENN WARREN HONORED ON U.S. POSTAGE STAMP
WASHINGTON - Poet, novelist and educator Robert Penn Warren was honored today by the U.S. Postal Service with the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp. A first-day-of-issue ceremony was held at the Robert Penn Warren Museum in Guthrie, KY, Warren's birthplace. The new stamp is available in Guthrie today and at Post Offices and philatelic centers across the nation tomorrow."The Postal Service has a wonderful legacy-and a very proud tradition-of honoring people who have had a significant influence on American Life," said Ann Wright, District Manager, Kentuckiana District, U.S. Postal Service, who dedicated the stamp. "We're very proud to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Robert Penn Warren's birth by featuring him on a U.S. postage stamp."
Joining Wright was the Honorable A. Scott Marshall, Mayor, Guthrie, KY; Elaine Monroe, Breathitt Veterinary Diagnostic Center; and Roseanna Warren and Gabriel Warren, the daughter and son of Robert Penn Warren. Honored guests included Jeane Moore, Director of Educational, Cultural and Historic Events, Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Committee; Tommie Lou Frey and Sandra Hughes, nieces of Robert Penn Warren; the Robert Penn Warren Circle, an international group with more than 300 members representing more than 50 schools and colleges; and the Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Committee.
Robert Penn Warren was America's first official poet laureate (1986-87) and a three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the only writer to have won the prize in poetry ("Promises: Poems, 1954-1956," in 1958, and "Now and Then: Poems, 1976-1978," in 1979) as well as fiction ("All the King's Men," 1947).
Warren received scores of other awards as well, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1980). He died on September 15, 1989, in West Wardsboro, VT.
Artist Will Wilson of San Francisco, CA, based his portrait of Warren on a 1948 photograph obtained from the Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies at Western Kentucky University. The background art recalls scenes from "All the King's Men."
The stamp is 21st in the Literary Arts series, which also includes Zora Neale Hurston (2003), Ayn Rand (1999) and Stephen Vincent Benét (1998).
To see the Robert Penn Warren commemorative postage stamp and other stamp designs, go to the Postal Service's online store at www.usps.com/shop, and simply click on "Release Schedule" in the Collector's Corner.
Current U.S. stamps, as well as a free comprehensive catalog, are available by toll-free phone order at 1-800-STAMP-24. A selection of stamps and other philatelic items are also available at the online Postal Store at www.usps.com/shop. In addition, beautifully custom-framed prints of original stamp art are available at www.postalartgallery.com.
Since 1775, the U.S. Postal Service has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency, the Postal Service makes deliveries to more than 142 million addresses every day and is the only service provider to deliver to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of $69 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mail and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. Moreover, today's postage rates will remain stable until at least 2006. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world's mail volume-some 206 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year-and serves seven million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.