Toni Morrison honored with forever stamp by U.S. Postal Service
Author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is the latest person to be honored with her own stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. Princeton University also held a ceremony to celebrate the stamp when it went on sale this week.
Morrison, who died in 2019, is best known for books like 1987's "Beloved," which won the Pulitzer Prize. She often wrote about themes of racism and mistreatment of African Americans.
In 1989, she became a professor at Princeton and in 1993 she became the first Black woman to be awarded the Nobel Price in Literature.
USPS chooses about 25 to 30 ideas for new stamps each year, even though they receive about 30,000 suggestions. Morrison was chosen because she has "made extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society," a spokesperson for USPS said, according to Princeton.
Morrison's stamp, designed by art director Ethel Kessler, is a Forever stamp, meaning it will never expire — even if the price of stamps changes.
The stamp features a headshot of Morrison against a yellow background that was taken by Deborah Feingold during a 1997 photoshoot for TIME Magazine, according to Princeton.
Feingold said Morrison posed in several outfits against different backdrops, which she said could be tiring, "but Toni remained focused and present, her expression for every frame was one of kindness. I have never taken that photoshoot for granted. And standing in front of you today, I humbly admit that this is beyond an honor," she said at the ceremony.
Several friends and fans remembered Morrison at the Princeton ceremony – including former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who wrote a letter and Oprah Winfrey, who provided a video message.
"Toni Morrison's books are in so many of our homes and abide in our hearts because she served as a catalyst for generations of readers over the years to understand the power of reading and words," said Winfrey, who often icluded Morrison's works in her book club and also starred in the film adaptation of "Beloved."
Morrison has been honored with a stamp before. In 1993, the year she won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Sweden, where the prize is presented, created a stamp for her. And in 2000, the island of Palau also honored her with a stamp.