Literature on stamps

It's surprising to me that the last stamp France issued to commemorate Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850) traces back to 1940, given the importance of the famous author of La Comédie humaine. There wasn't a special stamp issued in 1999 in France to commemorate the bicentenary of him.

Here are two French stamps showing the same design, with different facial values. The one that was cancelled in Tours, Balzac's native city, was issued in 1939. As for the other issued in 1940, I plan on getting the cancellation in Paris, where he died.



Here is the cover I made in my Postkard Art project:

Sorry Carmen, I only saw your post today. I may not be of much help, but since I too collect literature stamps, I just want to share with you my method.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be 'an easy way out' -- insofar as I am aware of. Today, I usually buy my stamps from Hipstamp; I try other places (such as eBay) if I can't find something on Hipstamp. However, I find their topical search tool very unhelpful, not to mention there is no separate category for literature.

So what I do usually, is to start looking for the stamps I aim for and try to find a couple of economical options on Hipstamp (which usually but does not always mean the lowest item price, as there is shipping cost to be considered in the total). Then I go through this / these seller(s)'s listing one by one to see if there is any stamp that interests me. Sometimes it's easy to tell if the stamp is related to literature judging from the visual, sometimes the sellers indicate in the title of the listing the profession of the persons the stamps commemorate, sometimes you have to Google the name yourself. After this step, I then buy from the seller who gives me the largest amount of stamps I want.

This means that I hardly ever buy from the same seller, as I go through thoroughly everyone's listing on my first purchase. So I can't really recommend any particular seller to you.

I often come across some writers who are important enough for a nation to commemorate him/her in stamp, but who are often not well-known enough outside of his/her linguistic sphere. Buying stamps allows me to learn about many artists whom I would otherwise ignore in ordinary life.

One major difficulty is with writing system that I cannot read, most notably the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets. When the sellers don't provide the Romanised names, I have grave difficulty in guessing what the alphabets on the stamps denote thus have not collected many of those stamps.

Thanks for the tips, folks!

Given the fame and the importance of La Deuxième Sexe (1949), I was surprised that France didn't issue any stamp to commemorate its author Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) until recently. In 2021, on the occasion of the International Women's Day (8 March) and not Beauvoir's birth or death anniversary, a French stamp in her honour finally came to the light of the common days.

Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956) was a German playwright, theatre director and poet. This German stamp of him was issued in 1998 on the occasion of his birth centenary:

Georg Büchner (1813 - 1837) who died young was a German dramatist and writer. 

This German stamp was issued in 1963 in the DDR era.



There is also a modern German stamp of him issued in 2013 on the occasion of his birth bicentenary that I haven't added to my collection yet.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600 - 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. He is best remembered for his plays.

Here is one Spanish stamp of him issued in 1982:



There is another Spanish stamp of him issued in 1951 that I don't possess.

He should have if only for the Threepenny Opera.                         What an irony - Alfred, who gave his name to the peace prize, was also the guy who gave the world smokeless powder.

The Algerian-born French writer and philosopher Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44. 3 years later he died in a car accident. I was very fond of his ideas and writings relating to absurdism and existentialism in my youth after reading L'Etranger (1942). I even went into a kind of frenzy to collect every form of legacy he left -- be it book, audio recording, and of course stamp / FDC. It happens that Camus is the figure for whom I bought the largest number of FDCs / maxicards.

This French stamp of Camus was issued in 1967 as part of the Famous People (1967) series that includes the stamp of Beaumarchais shared earlier. 



Here are the FDCs I still keep using the same stamp:







Here are the maxicards I bought in my youth before learning what a maxicard was:

Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod (1860 - 1927) was a Czech writer and journalist. Little is known about him outside of his country.

This stamp of him was issued in 1960 as part of the series Cultural Anniversaries, which also includes the stamps of the actress Hana Kvapilova, the composers Oskar Nedbal and Otakar Ostricil. 

The Frenchman Jean Cocteau (1889 - 1963) is a true polymath in the domaine of arts. His outputs cover literature (poetry, fiction, play), cinema, and visual arts. Insofar as I know, the only things he didn't practise bus still had some kind of connection to are music and dance.

This French stamp of Cocteau was issued in 1993 as a part of the series Famous People that focus on writers.

Emile Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, journalist & playwright, he became the leading figure in French naturalism. He is perhaps best known for his 1898 newspaper article 'J'accuse...!' An open letter to the President of France accusing the government, the army and the courts of anti-semitism for the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus.


France (YT 3524) issued 05/10/2002 to commemorate his 100th death anniversary:



Rwanda (sg RW 518) issued 12/03/1973 showing a portrait of Zola by Eduard Manet:



Czechoslovakia (sg CS 3008) issued 09/01/1990 to commemorate his 150th birth anniversary:



France (YT 1511) issued 4/2/1967 as part of their Famous People series:



Uruguay (sg UY 2514) issued 4/1/1999 for the centenary of the publication of 'J'accuse' (albeit one year late!):
Unfortunately I don't possess this stamp yet..

Pierre Corneille (1606 - 1684) was a French dramatist known for his play Le Cid (1636).

There are two French stamps issued in his honour: the first in 1937, the second in 1984: