Two Fantasists Going First-Class in 2009

2009 postage stamps

The US Postal Service will honor two fantasy writers on postage stamps next year: Rod Serling and Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan PoeI checked — neither was on the list of historic sf figures Chris Barkley gathered petitions to honor ten years ago (see File 770:133, page 18).

That Serling should be selected ahead of everyone else on the list is a little bit ironic because it validates one of Chris’ own arguments  — he told Science Fiction Weekly that the writers he named deserved recognition because they laid the foundations for currently-popular sf tv series and movies:

We know that without the influences of E.E. “Doc” Smith, Murray Leinster, Leigh Brackett and Edmund Hamilton, it’s doubtful you would be enjoying Star Trek, Farscape, Babylon 5 and Star Wars today. Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg might have well been sitcom producers without them.

In case you’re curious, here are the leading lights Chris wanted to see on stamps:

Artists: Frank R. Paul, Chesley Bonestell, Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, Vaughn Bode, Roy Krenkel, Ed Emshwiller, Jack Gaughan. Editors: John W. Campbell, Jr., Judy Lynn Del Rey, Anthony Boucher, Terry Carr, T.E. Dikty, Geoff Conklin, Terry Carr. Authors: E.E. “Doc” Smith, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford D. Simak, Paul Linebarger (Cordwainer Smith), Will Jenkins (Murray Leinster), Theodore Sturgeon, C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, Edmund Hamilton, A. Merritt, Alfred Bester, Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), Philip K. Dick, Cyril M. Kornbluth, James Blish, Fritz Leiber, Frank Herbert, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Pangborn, Stanley Weinbaum.

It’s still a good idea, Chris!

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]