Kurt Vonnegut

(1922 - 2007)

Florentine sculptor and writer Benvenuto Cellini.

Benvenuto Cellini

(1500 - 1571)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

William McIntosh

(c. 1778 - 1825)

Black and white photograph of French mystic, philosopher, and activist Simone Weil.

Simone Weil

(1909 - 1943)

English nurse Florence Nightingale.

Florence Nightingale

(1820 - 1910)

Black and white photograph of former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

Julius Rosenwald

(1862 - 1932)

Samuel Johnson

(1709 - 1784)

Sepia colored photo of Oscar Wilde sitting on a rock with a book in his hand

Oscar Wilde

(1854 - 1900)

French theologian John Calvin.

John Calvin

(1509 - 1564)

Harry Belafonte

(1927 - 2023)

Black and white photograph of American birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger.

Margaret Sanger

(1879 - 1966)

Margaret Olivia Sage

(1828 - 1918)

Mark Strand

(1934 - 2014)

Engraving of Roman author and administrator Pliny the Younger.

Pliny the Younger

(61 - 112)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

Sufi mystic and poet Rumi.

Rumi

(c. 1207 - 1273)

Christopher Hitchens

(1949 - 2011)

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

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

Black and white photograph of Czech writer Karel Čapek.

Karel Čapek

(1890 - 1938)

Tertullian

(c. 160 - c. 220)

Elizabeth I

(1533 - 1603)

American novelist John Dos Passos.

John Dos Passos

(1896 - 1970)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Henri Barbusse

(1873 - 1935)

Photograph of Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

(1835 - 1919)

French poet and author Christine de Pisan.

Christine de Pisan

(1364 - c. 1430)

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Seated man with a large white beard wearing a dark suit

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883)

Black and white photograph of American writer and exponent of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803 - 1882)

French man of letters Denis Diderot.

Denis Diderot

(1713 - 1784)

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

Chinua Achebe

(1930 - 2013)

American poet, journalist, and essayist Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman

(1819 - 1892)

German philosopher and music critic Theodor Adorno.

Theodor Adorno

(1903 - 1969)

Pablo Neruda

(1904 - 1973)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

American writer Eudora Welty.

Eudora Welty

(1909 - 2001)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician Moses Maimonides.

Moses Maimonides

(1135 - 1204)

Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

(106 BC - 43 BC)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Thomas Love Peacock

(1785 - 1866)

Dwight Macdonald

(1906 - 1982)

J.M. Coetzee

Al-Ghazali

(1058 - 1111)

Photograph of American writer Ralph Ellison.

Ralph Ellison

(1914 - 1994)

Curtis White