Article by Ken Lawrence wins AFDCS award

By Linn’s Staff

An article titled “The Greatest American First Day Cover” by Ken Lawrence won the 2023 Philip H. Ward Jr. memorial award for excellence in first-day cover literature, AFDCS president Lloyd de Vries announced in an Aug. 8 press release.

In the article, Lawrence tells the story of a July 2, 1847, cover franked with one of the first two United States stamps (Scott 2) and sent from New York City to Indianapolis. The cover was discovered in 1972 and is currently on display at the National Postal Museum.

“The Greatest American First Day Cover” appeared in the February 2023 issue of the Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues, the journal of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society.

Lawrence won the Ward literature competition two previous times (1996 and 2019) and shared the award another time (1989). He received the American Philatelic Society‘s Charles J. Peterson philatelic literature life achievement award (2018) and served as a vice president of the APS and as a trustee of the American Philatelic Research Library.

The American First Day Cover Society accepts submissions for the Ward award, and all articles published in the society’s journal First Days are automatically considered. A complete list of past winners can be found on the AFDCS website.

The prominent philatelist Philip H. Ward Jr. (1886-1963), for whom the award is named, began servicing FDCs in 1909. He wrote about new issues for a variety of publications.

The American First Day Cover Society is the largest not-for-profit FDC society in the world, with members in more than a dozen countries. It publishes an award-winning journal, First Days, six times a year; holds fundraising auctions; is a co-sponsor of the annual Great American Stamp Show; conducts an annual cachetmaking contest; and encourages philatelic exhibiting and writing about FDCs.

More information about the American First Day Cover Society is available on the society website, by emailing afdcs@afdcs.org or by writing the AFDCS at Box 27, Greer, SC 29652-0027.

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