John Ernst Steinbeck

Novelist

Fred Collins Signature

Spring 2021 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 3 V102 — John Steinbeck — 2/27/79

The first day city for this issue was Salinas, California. When the post office doors opened, I was there and worked very hard as a long day of travel was still ahead. It was my honor to meet pioneer cachetmaker Frank Pennington for the first time that morning. Most of Steinbeck's novels took place in the Salinas Valley, which is known as "The Salad Bowl of the Nation." One of my stops was the small post office in Soledad. This small town was the setting for his classic Of Mice and Men. I serviced only 100 covers there with a beautiful magenta postmark. It very well could be a Collins exclusive. This is a very scarce cover.