Bacchylides

(c. 510 BC - c. 452 BC)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Photograph by Cliff (CC BY 2.0).

Andre Agassi

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

American editor Terry McDonell.

Terry McDonell

Abul-Fazl

(1551 - 1602)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Yusef Komunyakaa

Dutch historian Johan Huizinga.

Johan Huizinga

(1872 - 1945)

Photograph of William Faulkner sitting in a chair.

William Faulkner

(1897 - 1962)

Richard Ford

Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer Baldassare Castiglione.

Baldassare Castiglione

(1478 - 1529)

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

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

Cuban chess player José Raúl Capablanca.

José Raúl Capablanca

(1888 - 1942)

Pindar

(c. 518 BC - c. 438 BC)

James Wright

(1927 - 1980)

British historian Edward Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon

(1737 - 1794)

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

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

American baseball player Yogi Berra.

Yogi Berra

(1925 - 2015)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Simon Apter

Pierre de Coubertin

(1863 - 1937)

Victor Heiser

(1873 - 1972)

P.G. Wodehouse

(1881 - 1975)

A.E. Housman

(1859 - 1936)

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Izaak Walton

(1593 - 1683)

Sepia toned photograph of Lewis Carroll in a suit, reading a book

Lewis Carroll

(1832 - 1898)

Norman Maclean

(1902 - 1990)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Virgil

(70 BC - 19 BC)

Statue of the Persian poet Ferdowsi.

Ferdowsi

(c. 935 - c. 1020)

American basketball player Charles Barkley.

Charles Barkley

American poet William Carlos Williams.

William Carlos Williams

(1883 - 1963)

Chuck Palahniuk

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Polybius

(c. 200 BC - c. 120 BC)

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

John Crowley

Hakeem Olajuwon

Charles Simic

John McPhee

Damon Runyon

(1880 - 1946)

Blaise Pascal

(1623 - 1662)

Henry Newbolt

(1862 - 1938)

American journalist A. J. Liebling.

A.J. Liebling

(1904 - 1963)

Jay Griffiths

Photograph of pilot, horse trainer, writer, and adventurer Beryl Markham on horseback.

Beryl Markham

(1902 - 1986)

Eric Nesterenko

Darcy Frey

Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Tacitus

(56 - c. 120)

George Catlin

(1769 - 1872)

Image from Codex Manesse depicting a tournament of knights.

Chrétien de Troyes

(c. 1165 - c. 1180)

David Grann

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Portrait of King James I.

James I

(1566 - 1625)

Ernest Hemingway standing between two large hanging fish

Ernest Hemingway

(1899 - 1961)

Gary Paulsen

Engraving of Roman author and administrator Pliny the Younger.

Pliny the Younger

(61 - 112)

Vince Lombardi

(1913 - 1970)

Dio Chrysostom

(c. 40 - c. 120)

Author and journalist Caroline Alexander.

Caroline Alexander

Black and white image of English scholar, writer, and clergyman Robert Burton.

Robert Burton

(1577 - 1640)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Photograph of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Lou Gehrig

(1903 - 1941)

American poet, journalist, and essayist Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman

(1819 - 1892)

Black and white photograph of Mencken looking over his shoulder at the camera

H.L. Mencken

(1880 - 1956)

Portrait of British poet Lord Byron.

Lord Byron

(1788 - 1824)

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

Honoré de Balzac

(1799 - 1850)

Beth Raymer

A.G. Spalding

(1850 - 1915)

Cecil Tyndale-Biscoe

(1863 - 1949)

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Marco Polo

(1254 - 1324)

American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

(1919 - 2021)

Henry Ford

(1863 - 1947)

George Plimpton

George Plimpton

(1927 - 2003)

Roger Bannister

(1929 - 2018)

Mikhail Lermontov

(1814 - 1841)

Black and white photograph of Ryszard Kapuściński holding a book.

Ryszard Kapuściński

(1932 - 2007)

American writer Philip Roth.

Philip Roth

(1933 - 2018)

Matthew C. Perry

(1794 - 1858)

Eduardo Galeano

(1940 - 2015)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)