Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

Jamaica Kincaid

Photograph of Italian writer Italo Calvino.

Italo Calvino

(1923 - 1985)

Gabriel García Márquez

(1927 - 2014)

Camara Laye

(1928 - 1980)

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

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

(1735 - 1813)

David Malouf. Photograph by Gerald Ganglbauer.

David Malouf

Black and white photograph of English writer and traveler Gertrude Bell.

Gertrude Bell

(1868 - 1926)

Kublai Khan

(1215 - 1294)

Photograph of African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes.

Langston Hughes

(1902 - 1967)

German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels

(1820 - 1895)

Mattathias Schwartz

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Rana Dasgupta

Elizabeth I

(1533 - 1603)

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

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908 - 1986)

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Marco Polo

(1254 - 1324)

George Sydenham Clarke

(1848 - 1933)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)

Rachel DeWoskin

Photograph of American writer William Langewiesche.

William Langewiesche

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Susan B. Anthony

(1820 - 1906)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Hans Massaquoi

(1926 - 2013)

Charles George Gordon

(1833 - 1885)

Charles Eastman

(1858 - 1939)

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

Paul Gauguin

(1848 - 1903)

Photograph of African American abolitionist and U.S. diplomat Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass

(c. 1818 - 1895)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Tecumseh

(1768 - 1813)

Portrait of American general and first president George Washington.

George Washington

(1732 - 1799)

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

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

Oscar Hammerstein II

(1895 - 1960)

Freya Stark

(1893 - 1993)

Daniel Defoe

(1660 - 1731)

Seated man with a large white beard wearing a dark suit

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Black and white photograph of French novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus.

Albert Camus

(1913 - 1960)

Ibn Fadlan

(c. 900 - c. 922)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

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

Homer

(c. 800 BC - 725 BC)

Mulk Raj Anand

(1905 - 2004)

Painted portrait of Scottish philosopher David Hume.

David Hume

(1711 - 1776)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Aizawa Seishisai

(1782 - 1863)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

George F. Kennan

(1904 - 2005)

Benjamin of Tudela

(c. 1120 - c. 1173)

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

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Photograph of American novelist and writer Flannery O’Connor.

Flannery O’Connor

(1925 - 1964)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Fu Xuan

(217 - 278)

Edward Said

(1935 - 2003)

Photograph of English poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling

(1865 - 1936)

Imad ad-Din

(1125 - 1201)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Joseph Boyden

Japanese art critic Okakura Kakuzō.

Okakura Kakuzō

(1862 - 1913)

Black and white photograph of former Democratic Republic of Vietnam president Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh

(1890 - 1969)

Patrice Lumumba

(1925 - 1961)

Liu Xijun

(c. 130 BC - c. 90 BC)