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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Loretta Napoleoni 

Daniel Loeb

Black and white engraving of Roman author Petronius.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter

(c. 27 - 66)

Mark Singer

Color portrait of German theologian and reformer Martin Luther.

Martin Luther

(1483 - 1546)

Image of Scottish poet, journalist, and author Charles Mackay.

Charles Mackay

(1814 - 1889)

George Bernard Shaw

(1856 - 1950)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

James Buchan

Robert Towne

Joris-Karl Huysmans

(1848 - 1907)

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

Black and white photograph of French novelist, playwright, and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jean-Paul Sartre

(1905 - 1980)

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

Charlemagne

(c. 747 - 814)

American author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

(1783 - 1859)

Ukrainian-born Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol.

Nikolai Gogol

(1809 - 1852)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

L.M. Sixel

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)

Joan Didion

(1934 - 2021)

William Jennings Bryan

(1860 - 1925)

Suetonius

(69 - c. 130)

Hans Holbein portrait of Sir Thomas More.

Thomas More

(1478 - 1535)

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

Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788 - 1860)

Alexander Hamilton

(1755 - 1804)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Photograph of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977)

Notorious B.I.G. (© MediaPunch Inc./Alamy Stock Photo)

The Notorious B.I.G.

(1972 - 1997)

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

Black and white photograph of a young Marshall McLuhan with a think mustache.

Marshall McLuhan

(1911 - 1980)

William Makepeace Thackeray

(1811 - 1863)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Marco Polo

(1254 - 1324)

German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1749 - 1832)

Sculpture bust of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop.

Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790)

English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer

(c. 1342 - 1400)

Henry Ford

(1863 - 1947)

Painting of Benjamin Franklin reading a batch of papers next to a classical bust.

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

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

Marcus Tullius Cicero

(106 BC - 43 BC)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Stephen Burroughs

(1765 - 1840)

Artist rendering of Hindu statesman and philosopher Kautilya.

Kautilya

(c. 350 BC - c. 300 BC)

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

John Ruskin

(1819 - 1900)

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

American novelist Upton Sinclair.

Upton Sinclair

(1878 - 1968)

Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Tacitus

(56 - c. 120)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Color portrait of English philosopher John Locke.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704)

Jackson Lears

Painted portrait of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

Jeremy Bentham

(1748 - 1832)

Florentine ruler and patron Lorenzo de Medici.

Lorenzo de’ Medici

(1449 - 1492)

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

Ihara Saikaku

(1642 - 1693)

Photograph of Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

(1835 - 1919)

Photograph of Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Ayn Rand (Everett Collection Inc./Alamy Stock Photo)

Ayn Rand

(1905 - 1982)

Dennis Kozlowski

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Photograph of American writer Ralph Ellison.

Ralph Ellison

(1914 - 1994)

Color drawing of Jane Austen sitting in a chair wearing a blue dress

Jane Austen

(1775 - 1817)

Indiana University professor Edward Castronova.

Edward Castronova

Mortimer Neal Thomson

(1831 - 1875)

John Maynard Keynes

(1883 - 1946)

American novelist John Dos Passos.

John Dos Passos

(1896 - 1970)

Dorothy Parker working at her typewriter.

Dorothy Parker

(1893 - 1967)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

British historian Edward Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon

(1737 - 1794)

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

John C. Calhoun

(1782 - 1850)

American sociologist and reformer W. E. B. Du Bois.

W.E.B. Du Bois

(1868 - 1963)

Seated man with a large white beard wearing a dark suit

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883)

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756 - 1791)

Rainer Rene Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden

British historian and author Ian Kershaw.

Ian Kershaw

British novelist, translator and author Tim Parks.

Tim Parks

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

John Updike

(1932 - 2009)

American author Tom Wolfe.

Tom Wolfe

(1931 - 2018)

Roman historian Sallust.

Sallust

(c. 86 BC - c. 34 BC)

James J. Cramer

Roger Starr

(1918 - 2001)

Portrait of Philip Dormer Stanhope wearing a blue sash.

Philip Dormer Stanhope

(1694 - 1773)

Professor of anthropology Jack Weatherford.

Jack Weatherford

Portrait of British poet Lord Byron.

Lord Byron

(1788 - 1824)

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

(1667 - 1745)

Hammurabi

(1810 BC - 1750 BC)

Photograph of Thorstein Veblen

Thorstein Veblen

(1857 - 1929)

Orson Welles

(1915 - 1985)

French theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard.

Peter Abelard

(1079 - 1142)

Elias Canetti

(1905 - 1994)

Herman J. Mankiewicz

(1897 - 1953)

Italian literary critic and novelist Umberto Eco.

Umberto Eco

(1932 - 2016)

Soldier and writer Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon.

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

(1675 - 1755)