On Monday, December 7, 2009 we launched a petition addressed to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, asking that they consider honoring the American writer Charles Bukowski with a commemorative postage stamp on the 20th anniversary of his death (3/9/2014).
The petition was submitted with more than 1100 signatures received on 3/1/2010. While the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee did write back to inform us that Bukowski is eligible to appear on a postage stamp and would be considered, no such stamp has yet appeared.
The original petition is closed, but if you would like to see Bukowski on a stamp, you can still send your personal letter of support to:
Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260-3501
Press coverage for the Bukowski stamp campaign included Fast Company, Adweek and NBC-LA.
Original petition text:
Dear members of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee,
I am writing to propose that the American novelist, poet and screenwriter Charles Bukowski be honored with a commemorative U.S. postal stamp to be issued on March 9, 2014, the twentieth anniversary of his death.
Charles Bukowski is uniquely suited for this honor. For in addition to being an acclaimed author with a growing international following, he is also perhaps the most famous American postal worker after Benjamin Franklin, and his landmark first novel “Post Office” is a wry portrait of the inner workings of the service where he was employed through age 49.
Bukowski’s popularity among readers is unquestioned, but he has recently received a pair of honors which speak to his abiding reputation in American letters. In February 2008, the small cottage where Bukowski lived for many years was named a Cultural-Historic Monument of the City of Los Angeles, and in 2006 his literary archives were acquired by the Huntington Library.
A Charles Bukowski postage stamp would be a worthy tribute to a gifted soul who transformed himself from a middle aged civil servant into an international literary lion, and who never lost his sensitivity towards the ordinary lives of the people of his hometown of Los Angeles. I hope that you will seriously consider this proposal at your next meeting.
Yours sincerely,
The Undersigned