New Greats
This series of stamps, which include those on the next page, depict famous Americans, ones who many people are unaware – although they may have been famous in their time or in their social and professional circles. For each page, I’ve chosen two or three people to describe.
Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell was an American journalist from the first half of the Twentieth Century. She’s most famous for the one novel she wrote, Gone with the Wind, which was made into a movie – one of the first in color – staring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, and Leslie Howard.
She mostly wrote for the Atlanta Journal. I’m not sure why she didn’t write another novel, especially given her success with her first. She worked on the first for many years, so maybe she found writing them require too much of an effort. Many writers just aren’t novelists. Incidentally, the book and movie were considered to be a little scandalist given the sexual and passionate nature of the main characters – by today’s standards, it’s unnoticable. What’s more interesting is that Mitchell was an avid reader and collector of erotic books. It makes me wonder more about her personal life with such an interest and being such an attractive looking woman.
Jack London
Jack London was another American novelist and journalist, born about twenty-five years before Mitchell in San Francisco, California. He wrote several novels which were well received and popular: The Call of the Wild and White Fang, The Sea Wolf, etc. – many of them were set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s and some aboard cargo ships.
Note
Finding all of these stamps was not easy or quick. When these were issued, I wasn’t active in collecting stamps, so I didn’t get them at the post office — I had taken quite a few years break from acquiring stamps. First because I couldn’t afford to buy anything, then because my life interests had shifted. A few years ago I suddenly renewed my interest in collecting. Now my collection is one that I would have envied greatly when I was a boy.
Contains 17 spots: own 17 – 17 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jul 23, 2025
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Famous Americans
✓ |
2168 |
1c (jun 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2169 |
2c (feb 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2170 |
3c (sep 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2171 |
4c (jul 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2172 |
5c (feb 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2173 |
5c (feb 1990) |
|||
✓ |
2175 |
10c (aug 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2176 |
14c (feb 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2177 |
15c (jun 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2178 |
17c (jun 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2179 |
20c (oct 1994) |
|||
✓ |
2180 |
21c (oct 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2181 |
23c (nov 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2182 |
25c (jan 1986) |
|||
✓ |
2183 |
28c (sep 1989) |
|||
✓ |
2197 |
25c (may 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2182a |
25c (may 1988) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
