With this beautiful stamp affixed to the collectible OFDC, Canada Post honours a cultural luminary who helped to form the Canadian identity.

Designer Steven Slipp took up the challenge to interpret one of Canada’s pre-eminent cultural figures in one square inch – and he succeeded beautifully.

A portrait of Robertson Davies by Yousuf Karsh frames an all-knowing academic figure, with his trademark beard worthy of a mythic god.

The typography is based on Carl Dair’s Cartier, acknowledged as Canada’s first typeface. Dair’s important type archive and a press donated by Davies’ father are housed in the Robertson Davies Library at Massey College.

Robertson Davies, a Distinguished Canadian Author

Robertson Davies was born on August 28, 1913, in Thamesville, Ontario. The family moved to Kingston in 1925. Davies attended Toronto’s Upper Canada College, then Queen’s University as a special student. He received his Bachelor of Literature from the University of Oxford’s Balliol College in 1938. While in the United Kingdom, he met and married stage manager Brenda Mathews.

Davies returned to Canada in 1940, as literary editor of Saturday Night, and in 1942, became editor, then publisher, of the Peterborough Examiner. During this period, the prolific writer published 18 books, produced several of his own plays and served on the board of the Stratford Festival.

In 1960, Davies began teaching at Trinity College and in 1961, became the founding master of Massey College, which opened in 1963. The Official First Day Cover features content celebrating the College’s 50th anniversary.

Davies published his best known novel, Fifth Business, in 1970. It remained on the Toronto Star bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was followed by The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975), which together became known as The Deptford Trilogy.

Source: Canadian Post

published June 26th, 2013