Group wants stamp to honor Coweta native Erskine Caldwell

NEWNAN - Fans of the writer Erskine Caldwell, who shocked readers with his Depression-era depiction of abject Southern poverty and social injustice, are mounting a campaign to have the Coweta County native honored with a postage stamp. <br> <br> The effort began with Yvonne Lenbergs, executive producer of ``The Sure Hand of God,&#39;&#39; a so-far unreleased film adaptation of Caldwell&#39;s 1947 novel. <br> <br> Lenbergs, a former Intel Corp. executive from Los Altos, Calif., wrote to the U.S. Postal Service&#39;s Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee last month suggesting Caldwell be honored with a stamp. Caldwell, who would have turned 100 next year, died in 1987. <br> <br> The Erskine Caldwell Birthplace and Museum in Moreland has endorsed the project. <br> <br> ``A commemorative stamp for Caldwell meets all ... points of your basic criteria now guiding subject selection, and I believe that it also meets the committee&#39;s primary goal to select subjects which are both interesting and educational,&#39;&#39; she wrote. <br> <br> In her letter, Lenbergs noted that Caldwell is one of the most widely read 20th century writers. He wrote more than 50 books, which have sold 80 million copies. His work has been translated into 43 languages. <br> <br> Caldwell gained fame in 1932 with ``Tobacco Road,&#39;&#39; the tale of Jeeter Lester&#39;s poverty-stricken family outside Augusta. Director John Ford made a film version of the novel in 1941. <br> <br> Caldwell&#39;s next novel, ``God&#39;s Little Acre,&#39;&#39; released the following year, was censored by the Georgia Literary Commission and banned in several cities over its portrayal of poverty, vice and degradation. <br> <br> His grimly graphic work enraged many Georgians including ``Gone With the Wind&#39;&#39; author Margaret Mitchell who felt he was exploiting Southern poverty for a Northern audience with his portrayal of class, race and gender. <br> <br> The 15-member committee reviews more than 50,000 stamp subject proposals annually and recommends subjects and designs to the Postmaster General. <br> <br> The Postal Service previously has honored writers such as Mitchell, Samuel Clemens, William Faulkner, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway and Langston Hughes.