Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Austro-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875 - 1926)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

David O. Selznick

(1902 - 1965)

Black and white photograph of French writer Victor Hugo.

Victor Hugo

(1802 - 1885)

Francisco Pacheco

(1564 - 1644)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

George Catlin

(1769 - 1872)

Color portrait of Russian poet, novelist, and dramatist Aleksandr Pushkin.

Aleksandr Pushkin

(1799 - 1837)

Joel & Ethan Coen

Salman Rushdie

Norman Maclean

(1902 - 1990)

Lu Ji

(261 - 303)

Painted portrait of English poet John Milton.

John Milton

(1608 - 1674)

Yang Wanli

(1127 - 1206)

Black and white photograph of a young John Ruskin wearing a suit.

John Ruskin

(1819 - 1900)

color oil painting of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a red tunic with gray hair

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756 - 1791)

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot

(1888 - 1965)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Billy Collins

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

Miguel de Cervantes

(1547 - 1616)

Vitruvius

(c. 80 BC - 15 BC)

Wendy Steiner

Vaslav Nijinsky

(1889 - 1950)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

(1806 - 1861)

Glenn Gould

(1932 - 1982)

Black and white photograph of American poet Marianne Moore.

Marianne Moore

(1887 - 1972)

Oil painting portrair Michel de Montaigne in red robes and white collar

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

Susan Sontag

(1933 - 2004)

Suetonius

(69 - c. 130)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811 - 1896)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

Italian-French author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

(1876 - 1944)

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

German composer Richard Wagner.

Richard Wagner

(1813 - 1883)

Zadie Smith

Florentine sculptor and writer Benvenuto Cellini.

Benvenuto Cellini

(1500 - 1571)

Portrait of young Arthur Schopenhauer wearing a brown suit and a cravat.

Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788 - 1860)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

German philosopher and music critic Theodor Adorno.

Theodor Adorno

(1903 - 1969)

Photograph of American jazz singer Billie Holiday.

Billie Holiday

(1915 - 1959)

Lee Quinones

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

(1867 - 1936)

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Italian artist and author Giorgio Vasari.

Giorgio Vasari

(1511 - 1574)

Frédéric Chopin

(1810 - 1849)

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Color mosaic of earl Church father St. John Chrysostom.

St. John Chrysostom

(347 - 407)

Su Shi

(1037 - 1101)

Robert Towne

Maxim Gorky

(1868 - 1936)

Writer Henry James.

Henry James

(1843 - 1916)

Photograph of American novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler.

Raymond Chandler

(1888 - 1959)

Andy Warhol

(1928 - 1987)

French man of letters Denis Diderot.

Denis Diderot

(1713 - 1784)

Jean-François de Saint Lambert

(1716 - 1803)

Johann Peter Eckermann

(1792 - 1854)

photograph of David Foster Wallace speaking at a podium

David Foster Wallace

(1962 - 2008)

Vincent van Gogh

(1853 - 1890)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Depiction of Chinese philosopher Mozi.

Mozi

(c. 470 BC - c. 391 BC)

Photograph of Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki.

Natsume Sōseki

(1867 - 1916)

Image of French writer Honoré de Balzac with hand on chest.

Honoré de Balzac

(1799 - 1850)

Portrait of English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(1792 - 1822)

Photograph of William Faulkner sitting in a chair.

William Faulkner

(1897 - 1962)

English poet and satirist Alexander Pope.

Alexander Pope

(1688 - 1744)

Louis Armstrong

(1901 - 1971)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

American author and journalist Jamie James.

Jamie James

German writer Friedrich Schiller.

Friedrich Schiller

(1759 - 1805)

Black and white photograph of former chancellor and Führer of Germany Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler

(1889 - 1945)

Barbara Rose

Kurt Vonnegut

(1922 - 2007)

Knut Hamsun

(1859 - 1952)

Stéphane Mallarmé

(1842 - 1898)

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

Roberto Bolaño

(1955 - 2003)

Manuscript image of St. Bede.

Saint Bede

(c. 673 - 735)

Zeami

(c. 1363 - c. 1443)

Photograph of English art critic, novelist, and painter John Berger.

John Berger

(1926 - 2017)

Clement Greenberg

(1909 - 1994)

Photograph of German literary critic Walter Benjamin.

Walter Benjamin

(1892 - 1940)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

(1714 - 1787)

Sabiha Al Khemir

Arthur C. Fifield

Photograph of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977)

American artist Jack Tworkov.

Jack Tworkov

(1900 - 1982)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet Michelangelo.

Michelangelo

(1475 - 1564)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

French novelist Gustave Flaubert.

Gustave Flaubert

(1821 - 1880)

Japanese artist Hokusai.

Katsushika Hokusai

(1760 - 1849)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)