Dedication of new Twain stamp set for Hannibal

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) - Mark Twain is being honored with a postage stamp, and his hometown will be the location for a dedication ceremony.

The U.S. Postal Service will issue the new stamp on June 25 at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in the northeast Missouri town of Hannibal, where Twain spent his childhood. The program will include remarks by James Bilbray, a member of the Postal Service Board of Governors.

The Hannibal Post Office will have staff on hand to sell new stamps and to cancel mail with a special cancellation reading, "First Day of Issue."

Twain was born Samuel Clemens in Florida, Mo., in 1835, but his family moved to Hannibal when he was a young boy. Many of the characters in his books were based on people he knew in Hannibal.