D2302

Norman Rockwell

Freedom From Fear

Collins Cover Announcement

NORMAN ROCKWELL 

Freedom From Fear 

Fifty-Cent Mini-Sheet Stamp

My hand-painted cachet for the first of my COLLINS Rockwell First Day Covers to be offered depiuLs a sailor home on leave. It looks as though he just arrived because he is comfortably stretched out in a hammock with a look of contentment and peace of mind as he dozes. With hands clasped behind his head and familiar sailor hat angled forward, he represents the best of confident and willing American youth who have always stepped forward to guard the country's shores. Now, on a balmy day in his own front yard, he too enjoys the freedom from fear that is so precious.

The four fifty-cent stamps were paintings that Norman Rockwell did based on the famous speech by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt. They appeared in the "Saturday Evening Post" magazine in 1943. Rockwell was deservedly famous for his over 4,000 works which represented average American citizens at work and play. At home and on the job. From the big city to the family farm. Young and old. Serious and frivolous. His paintings "were" the America that people knew and loved. I grew up, as did millions, loving the covers he did for such magazines as "Boy's Life"; "Family Circle"; "Ladies Home Journal"; "McCall's"; "Life"; and, of course, the most popular of all, his 321 "Saturday Evening Post" covers between 1916 and 1963. Norman Rockwell certainly influenced a lot of people in the 20th Century and my admiration for his "American spirit" So evident in his works has, I'm sure, contributed to my decisions over the years as to "how to go" with various cachets.

Navy issue shoes sit on the grass where our young sailor has slipped them off before his care-free nap. A stone's throw away sits the red frame house where he grew from boyhood to manhood "free from fear". Now, the faithful family dog has settled on his lap and joins in a brief restful sleep with the young citizen sailor who will soon once again leave home to help protect and preserve his country. Norman Rockwell's "Freedom From Fear". Item #D2302. $11.00.