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

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908 - 1986)

J.M. Coetzee

William Blackstone

(1723 - 1780)

Ron Rosenbaum

Woman with short gray hair seated with a book open in her lap

Maya Angelou

(1928 - 2014)

Judith Sargent Murray

(1751 - 1820)

Japanese diarist and poet Sei Shōnagon.

Sei Shonagon

(c. 966 - c. 1025)

Kenneth Anger

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

Oscar Wilde

(1854 - 1900)

E.D. Morel

(1873 - 1924)

Joseph Glanvill

(1636 - 1680)

Wheel of Fortune from the Carmina Burana.

Carmina Burana

Janet Flanner

(1892 - 1978)

Tennessee Williams

(1911 - 1983)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Marguerite de Navarre

(1492 - 1549)

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Virgil

(70 BC - 19 BC)

Ibn al-Muqaffa

(c. 721 - c. 756)

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

Honoré de Balzac

(1799 - 1850)

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

(1842 - c. 1914)

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

Jacobus de Voragine

(c. 1230 - 1298)

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

Jack Beatty

Sculpture bust of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop.

Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Tertullian

(c. 160 - c. 220)

Chong Yagyong

(1762 - 1836)

English writer and essayist William Hazlitt.

William Hazlitt

(1778 - 1830)

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

Jane Austen

(1775 - 1817)

Theophrastus

(c. 372 BC - c. 287 BC)

Mario Vargas Llosa

Murasaki Shikibu

(c. 973 - c. 1031)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Antal Szerb

(1901 - 1945)

W.T. Stead

(1849 - 1912)

E.L. Doctorow

(1931 - 2015)

Parliament of Singapore

English author Evelyn Waugh.

Evelyn Waugh

(1903 - 1966)

Yi Tongmu

(1741 - 1793)

Boris Kachka

Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort

(1741 - 1794)

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

(1839 - 1908)

Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio.

Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313 - 1375)

Portrait of English wit and poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester with monkey.

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

(1647 - 1680)

Hazel D. Campbell

(1940 - 2018)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Eric Jager

Nancy Lemann

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Greek dramatist Sophocles.

Sophocles

(c. 496 BC - 406 BC)

Héloïse

(c. 1098 - 1164)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Black and white engraving of Roman author Petronius.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter

(c. 27 - 66)

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

(1741 - 1803)

Black and white image of English novelist Anthony Trollope.

Anthony Trollope

(1815 - 1882)

black and white pencil drawing of Moliere in an ornate frame

Molière

(1622 - 1673)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Onyinye Ihezukwu

Charles Sumner

(1811 - 1874)

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

French author Émile Zola.

Émile Zola

(1840 - 1902)

Rosario Ferré

(1938 - 2016)

James Thomson Callender

(1758 - 1803)

Quentin Crisp

(1908 - 1999)

James Ellroy

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

(1751 - 1816)

Marghanita Laski

(1915 - 1988)

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

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

(1675 - 1755)

Rose Allatini

(1890 - 1980)

Matthew Paris

(c. 1200 - 1259)