Jane Jacobs

(1916 - 2006)

Novelist and psychiatrist Daniel Mason.

Daniel Mason

Smiling man with thin hair sticking out at a podium

James D. Watson

Painted portrait of German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

Alexander von Humboldt

(1769 - 1859)

Engraving of a bust of Lucretius.

Lucretius

(c. 95 BC - c. 50 BC)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Black and white photograph of Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad.

Joseph Conrad

(1857 - 1924)

Jamaica Kincaid

Painting of Greek philosopher Heraclitus weeping over a globe.

Heraclitus

(c. 540 BC - c. 480 BC)

American diplomat, scholar, and conservationist George Perkins Marsh.

George Perkins Marsh

(1801 - 1882)

Painting of William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth

(1770 - 1850)

Photograph of American writer and naturalist Henry Beston.

Henry Beston

(1888 - 1968)

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

Marcus Tullius Cicero

(106 BC - 43 BC)

Lewis Thomas

(1913 - 1993)

Portrait of Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712 - 1778)

At the age of seventeen, Hawthorne mused to his mother about the possibility of “relying for support upon my pen.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne

(1804 - 1864)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Painting of a bearded man with dark eyes wearing a white ruff

John Winthrop

(1588 - 1649)

American physicist Richard Feynman.

Richard Feynman

(1918 - 1988)

English poet and satirist Alexander Pope.

Alexander Pope

(1688 - 1744)

Chris Rose

Painted portrait of French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon

(1707 - 1788)

English economist and demographer Thomas Malthus.

Thomas Malthus

(1766 - 1834)

American author Evan S. Connell.

Evan S. Connell

(1924 - 2013)

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

H.G. Wells

(1866 - 1946)

Black and white photograph of E. B. White sitting at his typewriter with his dachshund.

E.B. White

(1899 - 1985)

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

Hernán Cortés

(1485 - 1547)

Loren Eiseley

(1907 - 1977)

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

Portrait of Francis Bacon in sixteenth-century armor.

Francis Bacon

(1561 - 1626)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Man with a gray goatee wearing a checked shirt standing outdoors

Eric Schlosser

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Photograph of British writer and journalist Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester

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

John Berger

(1926 - 2017)

Curtis White

Alain de Lille

(c. 1128 - 1202)

Steven Stoll

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

(1817 - 1862)

Frederick Turner

Photograph of American novelist Jack London.

Jack London

(1876 - 1916)

English poet Edmund Spenser.

Edmund Spenser

(1552 - 1599)

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

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

Immanuel Kant

(1724 - 1804)

Carl Sagan

(1934 - 1996)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Wang Wei

(701 - 761)

Portrait bust of presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer.

Homer

(c. 800 BC - 725 BC)

David Quammen

French-American author J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur.

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

(1735 - 1813)

John Muir

(1838 - 1914)

Photograph of American poet Countee Cullen.

Countee Cullen

(1903 - 1946)

Theocritus

(c. 300 BC - c. 260 BC)

Photograph of journalist, author, and professor Michael Pollan.

Michael Pollan

William Blake

(1757 - 1827)

Nicholas Barbon

(c. 1640 - 1698)

Color photograph of writer and editor Garret Keizer.

Garret Keizer

John D. Rockefeller Jr.

(1874 - 1960)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803 - 1882)

Edward Abbey

(1927 - 1989)

Frederick Jackson Turner

(1861 - 1932)

Bill McKibben

American poet, journalist, and essayist Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman

(1819 - 1892)

Paul Gauguin

(1848 - 1903)

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

W.B. Yeats

(1865 - 1939)

Pretty-shield

(1856 - 1944)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1749 - 1832)

French man of letters Denis Diderot.

Denis Diderot

(1713 - 1784)

Photograph of American biologist Edward O. Wilson.

Edward O. Wilson

Image of English naturalist Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin

(1809 - 1882)

British author Mary Shelley.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(1797 - 1851)

Photograph of American environmentalist Aldo Leopold.

Aldo Leopold

(1887 - 1948)

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

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

(1667 - 1745)

Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola

(1463 - 1494)

American poet Anne Bradstreet.

Anne Bradstreet

(c. 1612 - 1672)

American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Frederick Law Olmsted

(1822 - 1903)

Engraving of Roman author and administrator Pliny the Younger.

Pliny the Younger

(61 - 112)

Robinson Jeffers

(1887 - 1962)

Photograph of Native American author and educator Luther Standing Bear.

Luther Standing Bear

(1868 - 1939)

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

(1828 - 1905)

Image of medieval traveler Sir John Mandeville.

John Mandeville

(c. 1300 - 1371)

British author Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley

(1894 - 1963)

Al Gore

Portrait of English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton.

Isaac Newton

(1643 - 1727)

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

Adolf Hitler

(1889 - 1945)

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

Black and white photograph of Emily Dickinson sitting next to a desk.

Emily Dickinson

(1830 - 1886)

D. Graham Burnett

Novalis

(1772 - 1801)

Edward Hoagland

Andrew Jackson

(1767 - 1845)

Photograph of Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson

(1907 - 1964)

Italian artist, engineer, and scientist Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452 - 1519)

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

Vitruvius

(c. 80 BC - 15 BC)

Charles Bowden

(1945 - 2014)

Image of Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Bashō.

Matsuo Basho

(1644 - 1694)

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Virgil

(70 BC - 19 BC)

Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Dante Alighieri

(1265 - 1321)

Paracelsus

(1493 - 1541)

Painted portrait of English poet John Milton.

John Milton

(1608 - 1674)

Depiction of Plymouth colony governor William Bradford.

William Bradford

(1590 - 1657)