C. David Thomas, Wellesley, MA

Postage Due, 2009

Agent Orange, 2010

Chance, 2010

An Artist's Portrait of Ho Chi Minh, 2000

Postage Due, 2010

This book contains twelve sets of stamps with images that cannot be found on U.S. Postal Service stamps. These include, among others, images of Vietnam’s leader Ho Chi Minh working with U.S. soldiers during WW II, images of American prisoners of war (POWs) drawn by a former North Vietnamese soldier/artist, images of Agent Orange victims, images of the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam, images of a badly burned young girl fleeing from her village which had just been napalmed, and images of Hiroshima and Ngasaki, Japan, after the U.S. nuclear bombing of those densely populated cities.

“I never really thought much about the importance of how we chose what images to place on our stamps until one day in 1995, when I went to the post office and asked for an interesting stamp. The woman behind the counter handed me a sheet of the recently issued Richard Nixon stamp. This stamp was issued only twenty years after he was forced to resign in disgrace as the 37th President of the United States. Needless to say, I handed them back to her with some choice words.

“The next time I was to think about stamps was in 1996, when I went to the philately society in Hanoi, Viet Nam, while doing research for a book on President Ho Chi Minh. Of course I found dozens of stamps with the image of Ho Chi Minh as well as many other World leaders including Vladamir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mao Tse Dung, and Mahatma Gandhi. Other stamps I found depicted Vietnamese war and sports heros, butterflies, frogs, flowers, and even a 1966 stamp depicting the shooting down of the 1,500th U. S. aircraft brought down over North Viet Nam and one with the image of Norman Morrison, the man who immolated himself outside Robert McNamara’s office at the Pentagon.

“I have began to understand the real power of this little jewel which may be the smallest form of propaganda available to all governments. These miniature posters travel all over the world spreading their message of the country of issue. Not only is it important what we decide to include on our stamps but possibly more important is what we chose not to put on our stamps.

“Just a few days before the U.S. Post Office issued Robert Indiana’s LOVE stamp in 1973, the U.S. heavily bombed the densely populated city of Hanoi killing hundreds of innocent Vietnamese civilians.

“For many summers during the 1950s and 60s my sister Karen and I, in order to escape the summer heat, would spend hours upon hours swimming and playing at Raymond Pond, Maine. On a similar hot summer day in June of 1968, Kim Phuc was playing with her two brothers in a tiny hamlet just north of Saigon when a U.S. fighter jet dropped napalm on them, killing her two brothers instantly and burning the skin off her back.

“The images in this book were selected because they depict important events in American histroy which seldom appear in our historical documents. They are intended to force you think and ask questions about our history as well as our future. If we refuse or ignore to face these facts, how can we ever have a clear understanding of our history? And won’t we simply continue to repeat our mistakes? My Lai will become Abu Ghraib and on and on.”
—C. David Thomas, Wellesley, MA

This book is printed in a limited edition of twenty-five with five artist’s proofs. Each book is numbered and signed by C. David Thomas. All pages are printed on Innova short grain, 200 gram, natural white soft texture duo paper. All pages are printed from a Hewlett Packard Photo-smart Pro B9180 using archival ink. Each book contains fifteen individual pages of stamps and is presented in a black linen box handmade by crafts makers in Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Agent Orange, 2009

According to the post-war Vietnamese government, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

These artist’s puzzle books are comprised of the six separate images depicted here. Each image is presented in its own linnen box made by craftsmakers in Hanoi, Vietnam. All assembled puzzles are 29 x 23 inches made from twenty individual pieces. Each puzzle piece is printed using archival paper and ink by an HP Photo-smart Pro B9180 ink jet printer. The pieces are then mounted on black felt and hand cut. Each puzzle is available individually or as a set. The puzzles are printed in an edition of five. Printed in the United States of America.

Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.

From 1961 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called “Rainbow Herbicides” employed in the herbicidal warfare program. During the production of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused health problems for those exposed during the Vietnam War. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.

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Chance, 2010

These artist’s puzzle books are comprised of the six separate images depicted here. Each image is presented in its own linnen box made by craftsmakers in Hanoi, Vietnam. All assembled puzzles are 29 x 23 inches made from twenty individual pieces. Each puzzle piece is printed using archival paper and ink by an HP Photosmart Pro B9180 inkjet printer. The pieces are then mounted on black felt and handcut. Each puzzle is available individually or as a set. The puzzles are printed in an edition of five. Printed in the United States of America

"Ben Davan and I both graduated from Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, in June of 1964. We were the only two members of our class to serve in Vietnam. Ben’s name is now etched in the black granite wall in Washington."
—C. David Thomas, Artist

BENEDICT MAHER DAVAN: SSGT - E6 - Regular Army, Special Forces, Length of service 4 years, His tour began May 18, 1967, Casulty on May 17, 1969, In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM, HOSITLE GROUND CASULTY, GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE, Body was recovered, Panel 29W - Line 58

CHARLES DAVID THOMAS, SPECIALIST E5 - Army - Regular, Artist and Engineer, Length of service 3 years, His tour began on April 11, 1969, In PLEIKU AND KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM, Returned to the U.S. on March 22, 1970, Honorable discharge on June 3, 1971, 49 Glen Road, Wellesley, Massachusetts

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An Artist's Portrait of Ho Chi Minh, 2000

“Through a collage of photographs, documents and other historical paraphernalia, combined with a fictional diary of the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, artist C. David Thomas has created an imaginative and moving portrait of one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. Recommended to all readers interested in the Vietnam War and its surroundings.”
—William J. Duiker, author, “Ho Chi Minh: A Life”

Booklyn is proud to distribute C. David Thomas' and Charles Fenn's amazing artists book about the life and mythos of Ho Chi Minh. An Artist Portrait of Ho Chi Minh will also be featured in Booklyn's Found In Translation exhbition which tours through the United States. Please visit An Artist Portrait of Ho Chi Minh's website. For other information about the arts in Vietnam please visit the cultural exchange organization that David founded the Indochina Arts Partnership.



In spite of the fact that Ho Chi Minh is on nearly everyone’s short list of the most important leaders of the twentieth century, the last book published on Ho Chi Minh in the United States, before William Duiker's book Ho Chi Minh: A Life was released in the fall of 2000, was Charles Fenn’s 1973 biography titled Ho Chi Minh. Before that the only other biography written on Ho Chi Minh by an American author was David Halberstam’s 1971 book titled HO.



After more than twenty-five years this book by biographer Charles Fenn and artist David Thomas is a result of the collaboration of these two men uniquely qualified to undertake this important project. This book includes passages from a fictional “diary.” As far as we know, Ho never kept a prose diary. The purpose intended in this work of imaginative reconstruction is intended to evoke a sense of his personal engagement with the events of his time. The “diary” is based on historical documents but should not be taken literally. Although fictional, the “diary” is based on factual information found at the bottom of each page. Also included are passages from Prison Diary, a collection of poems written by Ho Chi Minh while he was in prison in China in 1942-43, as well as two stories told by Mr. Vu Ky and Mr. Dinh Duong Dinh, two of Ho’s closest friends, and poems by several of Vietnam’s leading poets.

The book is 118 pages (59 text pages and 59 image pages) and printed in a limited edition of one hundred with ten artist’s proofs. Each book is numbered and signed by artist and author C. David Thomas and author Charles Fenn and resides in a lacquer box made by crafts makers in the Hanoi area, the lacquer box is contained in a handmade silk slip cover also custom made in Vietnam. Printed on Vietnamese Do (mulberry) paper hand made in Dong O Village in northern Vietnam, the text pages have been varnished to make the paper translucent. Images printed with a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 970Cse using archival ink, text printed by letterpress in Monotype Bembo by Wolfe Editions in Portland, Maine.

This page is maintained by Marshall Weber.