Yu Zhih

(1809 - 1874)

Detail of mural featuring Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa and chronicler.

Jacobus de Voragine

(c. 1230 - 1298)

Painting of Jean de la Bruyère wearing a red cape.

Jean de La Bruyère

(1645 - 1696)

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

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

Japanese author Yukio Mishima.

Yukio Mishima

(1925 - 1970)

Black and white photograph of German novelist and essayist Thomas Mann.

Thomas Mann

(1875 - 1955)

Harper Lee

(1926 - 2016)

Black and white photograph of social reformer and pacifist Jane Addams.

Jane Addams

(1860 - 1935)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Color portrait of the Italian writer and libertine Giacomo Casanova.

Giacomo Casanova

(1725 - 1798)

Black and white photograph of British writer Doris Lessing.

Doris Lessing

(1919 - 2013)

Elizabeth Bishop

(1911 - 1979)

Black and white photograph of Maria Bashkirtseva

Marie Bashkirtseff

(1858 - 1884)

Black and white photograph of German-language writer Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka

(1883 - 1924)

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

Jean-Paul Sartre

(1905 - 1980)

Black and white photograph of English man of letters Cyril Connolly.

Cyril Connolly

(1903 - 1974)

Sculpture bust of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop.

Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

Black and white photograph of French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

(1900 - 1944)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Black and white photograph of historian and man of letters Henry Adams.

Henry Adams

(1838 - 1918)

Longus

(c. 180 - c. 230)

Portrait of Philip Dormer Stanhope wearing a blue sash.

Philip Dormer Stanhope

(1694 - 1773)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

Color photograph of writer and activist Ishmael Beah.

Ishmael Beah

James Joyce

(1882 - 1941)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

Color portrait of Russian poet, novelist, and dramatist Aleksandr Pushkin.

Aleksandr Pushkin

(1799 - 1837)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Color photograph of Princeton professor of English and Comparative Literature Michael Wood.

Michael Wood

Painting of a young Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

(1819 - 1901)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Portrait of American Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards

(1703 - 1758)

George Saunders

Black and white photograph of English poet Wilfred Owen.

Wilfred Owen

(1893 - 1918)

Black and white photograph of psychologist G. Stanley Hall.

G. Stanley Hall

(1844 - 1924)

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

Robert Burton

(1577 - 1640)

Portrait of French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius.

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

(1715 - 1771)

Nikki Giovanni

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

Black and white photograph of German writer Hermann Hesse.

Hermann Hesse

(1877 - 1962)

Joan Didion

(1934 - 2021)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Black and white photograph of Danish author Tove Ditlevsen.

Tove Ditlevsen

(1917 - 1976)

Suetonius

(69 - c. 130)

Image of Japanese poet and essayist Yoshida Kenko.

Yoshida Kenko

(c. 1283 - c. 1351)

Color photograph of American journalist and author Dave Cullen.

Dave Cullen

Black and white photograph of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson

(1850 - 1894)

Image from Codex Manesse depicting a tournament of knights.

Chrétien de Troyes

(c. 1165 - c. 1180)

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

Oscar Wilde

(1854 - 1900)

Painting of humanist and scholar Erasmus.

Erasmus

(1466 - 1536)

Portrait of English writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759 - 1797)

Color photograph of writer and editor Noam Scheiber.

Noam Scheiber

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

Black and white photograph of Alsatian-German winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Albert Schweitzer.

Albert Schweitzer

(1875 - 1965)

Black and white photograph of British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb at a desk.

Eglantyne Jebb

(1876 - 1928)

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

Joseph Conrad

(1857 - 1924)

J. Edgar Hoover

(1895 - 1972)

Wang Jiusi

(1468 - 1551)

Portrait of Russian political thinker and writer Alexander Herzen.

Alexander Herzen

(1812 - 1870)

Black and white photograph of educator and reformer Booker T. Washington.

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Image of medieval traveler Sir John Mandeville.

John Mandeville

(c. 1300 - 1371)

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

Donna Tartt

Lillian Hellman

(1905 - 1984)

Portrait of German physician and writer Heinrich Hoffmann.

Heinrich Hoffmann

(1885 - 1957)

Engraving of Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick

(1591 - 1674)

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Black and white image of English novelist Anthony Trollope.

Anthony Trollope

(1815 - 1882)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Color photograph of Osama bin Laden, founder of militant Islamist group al-Qaeda.

Osama bin Laden

(1957 - 2011)

Black and white photograph of French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir.

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908 - 1986)

Color photograph of American novelist and short-story writer Richard Wright.

Richard Wright

(1908 - 1960)

Black and white photograph of folksinger Phil Ochs.

Phil Ochs

(1940 - 1976)

Portrait of Japanese political figure and scholar Sugawara no Michizane.

Sugawara no Michizane

(845 - 903)

Black and white photograph of critic and novelist Mary McCarthy.

Mary McCarthy

(1912 - 1989)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803 - 1882)

Portrait of Chinese painter and poet Xu Wei.

Xu Wei

(1521 - 1593)

Color portrait of English philosopher John Locke.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704)