Black and white photograph of Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi.

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

Black and white photograph of educator and reformer Booker T. Washington.

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Black-and-white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. with his right hand lifted

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929 - 1968)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

Saint Augustine (detail), by Philippe de Champaigne, c. 1645.

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

English mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace.

Ada Lovelace

(1815 - 1852)

Black and white photograph of Irish poet and writer W. B. Yeats.

W.B. Yeats

(1865 - 1939)

Black and white photograph of C. P. Cavafy wearing thick-rimmed black glasses.

C.P. Cavafy

(1863 - 1933)

French politician, physician, and journalist Jean-Paul Marat.

Jean-Paul Marat

(1743 - 1793)

Austro-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875 - 1926)

German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels

(1820 - 1895)

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

Italian-French author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

(1876 - 1944)

Yamanoue no Okura

(c. 660 - c. 733)

Henry Noel-Fearn

(1811 - 1868)

American journalist William Safire.

William Safire

(1929 - 2009)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

(c. 60 BC - c. 7 BC)

Meta Stern Lilienthal

(1876 - 1948)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

Greek dramatist Menander.

Menander

(c. 342 BC - c. 292 BC)

French philosopher Charles Fourier.

Charles Fourier

(1772 - 1837)

English writer Jerome K. Jerome.

Jerome K. Jerome

(1859 - 1927)

Lewis Mumford

(1895 - 1990)

British author Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(1689 - 1762)

American author, computer scientist, and futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Ray Kurzweil

Depiction of Greek lyric poet Sappho.

Sappho

(c. 610 BC - c. 570 BC)

President of the United States and five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890 - 1969)

American author Philip K. Dick.

Philip K. Dick

(1928 - 1982)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

British composer, author, actor and manager Charles Dibdin.

Charles Dibdin

(1745 - 1814)

Painting of Benjamin Franklin reading a batch of papers next to a classical bust.

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

American sociologist Robert K. Merton.

Robert K. Merton

(1910 - 2003)

Black and white photograph of a young H.G. Wells with a mustache.

H.G. Wells

(1866 - 1946)

American writer and editor Jennifer Szalai.

Jennifer Szalai

American columnist and editor John L. O’Sullivan.

John L. O’Sullivan

(1813 - 1895)

Greek dramatist Sophocles.

Sophocles

(c. 496 BC - 406 BC)

Portrait of English-American writer and polemicist Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine

(1737 - 1809)

Icelandic historian, poet, and statesman Snorri Sturluson.

Snorri Sturluson

(1179 - 1241)

Portrait of Alexis de Tocqueville wearing a black suit and standing in front of a chair.

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

Black and white photograph of a young Mark Twain with dark hair.

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

British novelist and historian Tom Holland.

Tom Holland

Image of Scottish poet, journalist, and author Charles Mackay.

Charles Mackay

(1814 - 1889)

British author Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley

(1894 - 1963)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Feng Guifen

(1809 - 1874)

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 - 1179)

Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi

(1869 - 1948)

Portrait of American general and first president George Washington.

George Washington

(1732 - 1799)

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot

(1888 - 1965)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Image from an illuminated manuscript of Boethius teaching two students.

Boethius

(c. 480 - c. 524)

Black and white photograph of John Crowley sitting on a porch.

John Crowley

Black and white image of Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca the Younger.

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

British novelist P. D. James.

P.D. James

(1920 - 2014)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Canadian-born American economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908 - 2006)

German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.

Friedrich Hölderlin

(1770 - 1843)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Russian author Ivan Turgenev.

Ivan Turgenev

(1818 - 1883)

Polish-born American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1903 - 1991)

Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

(1883 - 1937)

Photograph of American writer and professor Paul Collins.

Paul Collins

Photograph of English novelist and satirist T. H. White.

T.H. White

(1906 - 1964)

American engineer Gordon E. Moore.

Gordon E. Moore

American author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

(1783 - 1859)

French theologian John Calvin.

John Calvin

(1509 - 1564)

Artemidorus

(c. 101 - c. 200)

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)

Black and white photograph of Friedrich Nietzsche with a huge mustache.

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

Photograph of American author Ben Tarnoff.

Ben Tarnoff

American writer Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury

(1920 - 2012)

Portrait of Chinese Daoist Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi

(c. 369 BC - 286 BC)

Photograph of Colin Dickey standing in front of a brick wall.

Colin Dickey

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

Winston Churchill

(1874 - 1965)

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

(1828 - 1905)