About This Stamp
A 20-cent commemorative stamp honoring American author Nathaniel Hawthorne was issued July 8, 1983, in Salem, Massachusetts. The First Day of Issue ceremony was held at The House of The Seven Gables there. Built in 1668 by Captain John Turner, the house is traditionally thought to be the source of inspiration for Hawthorne's second novel, The House of the Seven Gables, published in 1851.
Bradbury Thompson, of Riverside, Connecticut, based the stamp design on a portrait painted in 1851 by 19th-century portrait and genre artist Cephus Giovanni Thompson. The portrait depicts Hawthorne at the height of his writing career. The original painting hangs in the Grolier Club in New York City. Ronald C. Sharpe modeled the stamp.
The Nathaniel Hawthorne stamp was issued in the Literary Arts series. It was printed in the photogravure process, with 50 stamps per pane.