Leon Norman Williams

Leon Norman Williams (25 March 1914^[1] – 9 April 1999), originally a barrister, was a noted British philatelic writer, who collaborated with his brother Maurice as "L. N. and M. Williams" until Maurice's death in 1976.

Career

The collaboration began in 1934 with magazine articles. In 1980 the brothers were elected to the Philatelic Writers Hall of Fame of the American Philatelic Society, and in 2000 Norman became a member of the APS Hall of Fame.

Together they succeeded Fred Melville as editors of the National Philatelic Society's journal The Stamp Lover (1940–1954) and they also edited The British Philatelist (1940–1954). They started The Cinderella Philatelist in 1961, which Norman continued after his brother's death.

Selected awards

• Glasewald Medal (1961) (Jointly)

Joint publications

• The "Propaganda" Forgeries (1938, their first collaboration in book form)
• Catalogue of the Philatelic Library formed by the late Sir Edward Denny Bacon, K.C.V.O. (1939) – compilers of a sale catalogue
• Philately (1939)
• Famous Stamps (1940)
• A "Melville" Bibliography (1941)
• The W. J. Webster Collection (1941)
• Pioneer Stamp Album (1941)
• More Famous Stamps (1942)
• Priced Catalogue of Local Postage Stamps with Erik F. Hurt (1942); supplement issued in 1948
• Stamp Anniversaries (1943)
• Stamps for All (1943)
• Stamp Collecting for Boys & Girls (1949)
• Stamps of Fame. London: Blandford Press, 1949
• Stamps Day by Day (1950)
• Postage Stamps (1950, Penguin) - a "Puffin Picture Book"
• Handbook of the Private Local Posts (1950 – essentially a revision of Priced Catalogue of Local Postage Stamps). Vol. VI of Fritz Billig: Billig's Specialized Catalogues
• Collecting Postage Stamps (1950)
• A Century of Stamp Production (1952)
• Basic Philately: The art and craft of stamp making (1952)
• Forged Stamps of Two World Wars (1954)
• Fundamentals of Philately (edited by David Lidman, serialized in The American Philatelist 1954–1963; first published in five separate sections beginning in 1958 then in complete book form 1971. The 1990 edition was revised by Norman alone)
• The Postage Stamp: Its History and Recognition (1956, Penguin); a Japanese translation was published in 1958
• Know Your Stamps (1956) - Expanded edition of Stamps for All
• Stamp Collector's Almanac (1957)
• The Satellite Album (1961)
• Hotel Posts of Hungary & Roumania (1962)
• Scott’s Guidebook to Stamp Collecting (1963)
• Commemorative Postage Stamps of Great Britain (1967)
• Rare Stamps (1967)
• Techniques of Philately (1969)
• Cinderella Stamps (1970)
• Illustrated Teach Yourself Stamp Collecting (1972)
• Check Your Stamps: How to Make Money from the Post Office (1973)

Norman alone also produced

• Encyclopedia of Rare and Famous Stamps, (Part I 1993, Part II 1997)
• "Philately 100 Years Ago" in Stamp Collecting (1981)

See also

• Williams Papers, the research papers of the Williams brothers at the British Library Philatelic Collections

References and sources

References

1. Bateman, Robert. Stamp Collectors' Who's Who. London: Stanley Gibbons Ltd., 1960, p. 94.

Sources

• APS Hall of Fame
• "About L. N. and M. Williams" in American Philatelist, vol. 67, No. 7, April 1954, pp. 502-4.
• James Negus, Philatelic Literature, Compilation Techniques and Reference Sources, Limassol, James Bendon, 1991
• Philatelic Literature Review, Vol. 12, Second Quarter, 1963, pp. 9-12
• George van den Berg, in his "Philatelic Notes", Stamps, vol. 39, No. 9, 30 May 1942, p. 303.