Italian-French author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

(1876 - 1944)

Austro-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875 - 1926)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

English writer Jerome K. Jerome.

Jerome K. Jerome

(1859 - 1927)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.

Friedrich Hölderlin

(1770 - 1843)

British author Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(1689 - 1762)

American author, computer scientist, and futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Ray Kurzweil

Photograph of American author Ben Tarnoff.

Ben Tarnoff

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi

(1869 - 1948)

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

Russian author Ivan Turgenev.

Ivan Turgenev

(1818 - 1883)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

(1883 - 1937)

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

W.B. Yeats

(1865 - 1939)

French politician, physician, and journalist Jean-Paul Marat.

Jean-Paul Marat

(1743 - 1793)

Yamanoue no Okura

(c. 660 - c. 733)

Henry Noel-Fearn

(1811 - 1868)

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

American engineer Gordon E. Moore.

Gordon E. Moore

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Black and white photograph of C. P. Cavafy wearing thick-rimmed black glasses.

C.P. Cavafy

(1863 - 1933)

American writer and editor Jennifer Szalai.

Jennifer Szalai

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

Polish-born American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1903 - 1991)

American writer Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury

(1920 - 2012)

President of the United States and five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890 - 1969)

American author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

(1783 - 1859)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

(1828 - 1905)

Photograph of American writer and professor Paul Collins.

Paul Collins

Lewis Mumford

(1895 - 1990)

Portrait of Chinese Daoist Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi

(c. 369 BC - 286 BC)

Portrait of American general and first president George Washington.

George Washington

(1732 - 1799)

British novelist and historian Tom Holland.

Tom Holland

British novelist P. D. James.

P.D. James

(1920 - 2014)

Black and white photograph of Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi.

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

Winston Churchill

(1874 - 1965)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

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

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

French philosopher Charles Fourier.

Charles Fourier

(1772 - 1837)

Photograph of English novelist and satirist T. H. White.

T.H. White

(1906 - 1964)

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

H.G. Wells

(1866 - 1946)

Photograph of Colin Dickey standing in front of a brick wall.

Colin Dickey

Black and white photograph of John Crowley sitting on a porch.

John Crowley

Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

(c. 60 BC - c. 7 BC)

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

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels

(1820 - 1895)

Saint Augustine (detail), by Philippe de Champaigne, c. 1645.

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

American sociologist Robert K. Merton.

Robert K. Merton

(1910 - 2003)

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)

American author Philip K. Dick.

Philip K. Dick

(1928 - 1982)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

Canadian-born American economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908 - 2006)

Icelandic historian, poet, and statesman Snorri Sturluson.

Snorri Sturluson

(1179 - 1241)

American journalist William Safire.

William Safire

(1929 - 2009)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Artemidorus

(c. 101 - c. 200)

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

American columnist and editor John L. O’Sullivan.

John L. O’Sullivan

(1813 - 1895)

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot

(1888 - 1965)

Depiction of Greek lyric poet Sappho.

Sappho

(c. 610 BC - c. 570 BC)

Feng Guifen

(1809 - 1874)

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 - 1179)

Image from an illuminated manuscript of Boethius teaching two students.

Boethius

(c. 480 - c. 524)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

British composer, author, actor and manager Charles Dibdin.

Charles Dibdin

(1745 - 1814)

Black-and-white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. with his right hand lifted

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929 - 1968)

Greek dramatist Menander.

Menander

(c. 342 BC - c. 292 BC)

Portrait of English-American writer and polemicist Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine

(1737 - 1809)

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

Charles Mackay

(1814 - 1889)

Greek dramatist Sophocles.

Sophocles

(c. 496 BC - 406 BC)

English mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace.

Ada Lovelace

(1815 - 1852)

Meta Stern Lilienthal

(1876 - 1948)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

British author Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley

(1894 - 1963)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

French theologian John Calvin.

John Calvin

(1509 - 1564)