Ibn al-Athir

(1160 - 1233)

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Elias Canetti

(1905 - 1994)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Toribio de Benavente Motolinia

(1482 - 1568)

Haruki Murakami

Robert Falcon Scott

(1868 - 1912)

Otto Friedrich

(1929 - 1995)

Nichiren

(1222 - 1282)

Tom Bissell

Henry Knighton

Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon

(1609 - 1674)

Engraving of a bust of Lucretius.

Lucretius

(c. 95 BC - c. 50 BC)

Fan Ye

(398 - 445)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Ifeanyi Menkiti

American diplomat, scholar, and conservationist George Perkins Marsh.

George Perkins Marsh

(1801 - 1882)

Rebecca Solnit

Immanuel Kant

(1724 - 1804)

Black and white photograph of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud with cigar.

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Svetlana Alexievich. Sergento (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Svetlana Alexievich

Jennifer Jacquet

Jennifer Jacquet

British author Mary Shelley.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(1797 - 1851)

John Gray

Harold Bride

Harold Bride

(1890 - 1956)

Thomas Bernhard

(1931 - 1989)

Ducas

(c. 1400 - c. 1462)

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

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

British writer Bernard Mandeville.

Bernard Mandeville

(1670 - 1733)

Engraving of the medieval Arab traveler Ibn Battuta.

Ibn Battuta

(1304 - c. 1369)

Gertrude Stein

(1874 - 1946)

English poet and novelist Siegfried Sassoon.

Siegfried Sassoon

(1886 - 1967)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

Black and white photograph of Czech writer Karel Čapek.

Karel Čapek

(1890 - 1938)

Rubén Darío

(1867 - 1916)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Paul Solotaroff

Daniel Zwerdling

Gregory of Tours

(c. 538 - 594)

Aleksandar Hemon

Chaim Kaplan

(1880 - 1942)

Claire Vaye Watkins

Color photograph of writer and editor Garret Keizer.

Garret Keizer

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

José Saramago

(1922 - 2010)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Curzio Malaparte

(1898 - 1957)

Photograph of British writer and journalist Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester

American author Evan S. Connell.

Evan S. Connell

(1924 - 2013)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Ayi Kwei Armah

Georges Cuvier

(1769 - 1832)

Yun Hoe

(1380 - 1436)

Angelina Jolie

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

C.P. Cavafy

(1863 - 1933)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867 - 1957)

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy

(1840 - 1928)

Mary Boykin Chesnut

Mary Boykin Chesnut

(1823 - 1886)

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790)

Paulus Orosius

(c. 385 - c. 420)

Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Tacitus

(56 - c. 120)

Ernst Jünger

(1895 - 1998)

Elizabeth Kolbert

Aelian

(c. 170 - c. 235)

Jonathan Schell

(1943 - 2014)

Herbert of Clairvaux

(c. 1133 - c. 1198)

Hayden Carruth

(1921 - 2008)

Paul Virilio

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Stephen Budiansky