United States, Scott #5757, used(o), 2023, Commemorating the work and person of Toni Morrison (1931-2019), an American novelist, in 1970, she parlayed a short story about a Black girl who longed to have blue eyes into her first novel, 'The Bluest Eye', which was favorably received and reviewed; in 1987, she published her most celebrated novel, 'Beloved'; it was inspired by the true story of an enslaved African-American woman, Margaret Garner who had escaped slavery but was pursued by slave hunters; facing a return to slavery, Garner killed her two-year-old daughter but was captured before she could kill herself; the novel imagines the dead baby returning as a ghost, Beloved, to haunt her mother and family; the novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; following this work, she went on to develop two further novels about love and African-American history, sometimes called 'the Beloved Trilogy', she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, issued as a 'forever' stamp at a counter price of 63 cents, lithography and typography printed, serpentine die cut simulated perforations: 10¾, issued with non-water soluble self-adhesive gum on multiple stamp panes, multicolored, Scott 2025 Catalog Value: 25¢, very slightly off-centered (extremely fine), light, black-inked, horizontal, wavy line cancel across most of the front of the stamp and over the the main image, good perforations, stamp was removed from its mailing envelope using a Bestine solvent and placed on a piece of black card stock for a uniform and attractive album appearance; centering, mounting, and considerable market demand warrant a selling price premium. This is not a 'bait-and-switch;' the stamp you see will be the one you receive.
Please review my terms of sale. If you are not ordering from the United States, there is a $US1.55 additional postage expense that needs to be added to the price of the stamp. If you are ordering from the United States, there is only a $US0.68 added postage expense. Also, if you make additional purchases from my offerings, they can all go in one mailing at no extra shipping expense for the added purchases. I will send the purchase by US first class mail, since the relatively low value of the stamp does not warrant signature or tracking mail. Hence the buyer assumes risk of loss or non-delivery. I will keep a scan of my mailing to verify that the correct mailing address was used. If not satisfied, return the stamp to me at your own expense, and I will refund the cost, but not my postage to you. If the stamp is not as described, I will refund the cost and reimburse you for postage both ways.
By way of reference, I am an American Philatelic Society member (195176) and an American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) member. Thank you for looking, and I hope this is the perfect stamp to fill that gap in your collection.