An Ontario illustrator with a long record of stamp work has provided the artwork for the latest issue in the United States Postal Service’s Literary Arts series.
The USPS will issue its Sarah Orne Jewett stamp on Aug. 21 in South Berwick, Maine, honouring the 19th-century American writer known for her portraits of rural and coastal New England life.
The stamp features original artwork by Mark Summers of Waterdown, Ont., whose detailed scratchboard portraits have appeared on previous U.S. stamps and in major publications. USPS art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp.
The non-denominated stamp pays the three-ounce domestic letter rate and will be issued in panes of 20. It is the 35th stamp in the Literary Arts series, which began in 1979 with a stamp honouring John Steinbeck.
Jewett, who lived from 1849 to 1909, was a novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. She is best known for her 1896 work The Country of the Pointed Firs, which helped establish her reputation as an important figure in American literary regionalism.
The stamp design shows a portrait of Jewett with the rocky Maine coast in the background. USPS says the ray of sunlight in the design evokes a scene from The Country of the Pointed Firs.
Summers is a Canadian illustrator whose work is strongly associated with scratchboard, a technique that produces a crisp, engraved appearance. The process involves cutting or scratching through a dark surface to reveal lighter areas beneath, allowing the artist to build tone, texture and detail through fine lines.
He has been a full-time freelance illustrator since graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1978. Summers has said he was introduced to scratchboard in 1976 by Duncan Macpherson, the acclaimed Canadian political cartoonist, while studying at the college.
That training gives the Jewett stamp a Canadian art-history connection beyond the artist’s Ontario address. Macpherson, one of Canada’s most influential editorial cartoonists, helped introduce Summers to the traditional medium that later became a defining feature of his international illustration career.
Summers’ artist profile says he has created stamp work for the USPS, Royal Mail and Canada Post, and has designed or illustrated 16 stamps for the USPS.
His confirmed Canada Post work includes the 2014 Komagata Maru commemorative, issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1914 incident in Vancouver. Canada Post credited Louis Gagnon of Paprika as the designer and Summers as the illustrator.
Canada Post issued the Komagata Maru stamp on May 1, 2014, as a $2.50 international-rate stamp in booklets of six. It also produced two Official First Day Covers cancelled in Vancouver.
The Komagata Maru issue recalled the steamship that carried 376 passengers, most of them Sikh migrants from India, to Vancouver in 1914. Canadian authorities refused most of the passengers entry under discriminatory immigration rules, forcing the ship to leave after a prolonged standoff.
Summers’ illustration helped give the stamp its historical tone, emphasizing the ship, the passengers and the clothing details visible in archival sources. The issue remains a notable Canadian example of his stamp work.
For the USPS, Summers has contributed to several previous issues honouring prominent historical and cultural figures. His stamp work has included portraits of Claude Pepper, Wilma Rudolph, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James A. Michener and Abraham Lincoln.
Beyond stamps, Summers has illustrated editions of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville and Jonathan Swift. His author portraits have also appeared in Barnes & Noble stores, reinforcing his connection to literary subjects.
He has received numerous illustration honours. The Society of Illustrators says Summers has received six medals and the Hamilton King Award, and that he has received more than 350 awards overall in Canada and internationally. USPS has also noted his 2019 induction into the Illustrators Hall of Fame.
The Jewett stamp continues a notable Canadian link to U.S. stamp design. Although the issue honours an American literary figure and will be released in Maine, its artwork was created in Canada by an illustrator whose engraved-looking style has become familiar to collectors of modern U.S. commemoratives.
Collectors seeking first-day postmarks may submit requests to USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services. Requests for the Jewett first-day postmark must be postmarked by Dec. 21.
The stamp will go on sale nationwide in the United States on Aug. 21.