I1101

Great Americans

Margaret Mitchell Novelist and Journalist

Collins Cover Announcement 

MARGARET MITCHELL

(Famous American - one cent)

This is a "combo-FDC" with other related stamps used to meet the first class postage rate. In addition to the Mitchell, each cover is franked with the 13-cent "50th Anniversary of Talking Pictures" stamp as well as the 10-cent "D.W. Griffith" early famous director stamp. I am particularly pleased with the magnificent unofficial First Day cancel that ties all three stamps to the cover.

After purchasing the stamps in Atlanta, Georgia on the morning of the First Day, they were carried back to New Jersey with enroute licking and sticking. I then drove up through a very scenic and rural section of New York State to the Catskill Mountain village of Margaretville (which, by the way, offers outstanding trout fishing). The cancel is a bold, slightly oval shaped one with killer bars (it appeared old), and it really does look good on the envelope with the three stamps. And, of course, a "Margaretville" First Day cancel at a distance of one thousand miles plus from the Official City has to be a plus for anyone's collection.

The hand-painted cachet has a "Gone With the Wind" theme and shows the famous Atlanta fire. (Need I say that this will always be a "hot" COLLINS FDC?) Escaping in a horse-drawn buckboard are the novel's two main characters -- Scarlet O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Behind them, yellow, orange and red flames leap from each building.

This is an interesting and attractive combo Famous American cover -- three different stamps, a great "Margaretville" First Day cancel, and a brightly hand-painted "Gone With the Wind" cachet. I hope you will avoid being "burned" by an early sell-out and add one to your collection today. Item #I1101. $8.25