British author Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley

(1894 - 1963)

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

(1828 - 1905)

Greek dramatist Sophocles.

Sophocles

(c. 496 BC - 406 BC)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

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

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels

(1820 - 1895)

Russian author Ivan Turgenev.

Ivan Turgenev

(1818 - 1883)

Italian-French author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

(1876 - 1944)

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot

(1888 - 1965)

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

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

T.H. White

(1906 - 1964)

British composer, author, actor and manager Charles Dibdin.

Charles Dibdin

(1745 - 1814)

American writer and editor Jennifer Szalai.

Jennifer Szalai

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

English writer Jerome K. Jerome.

Jerome K. Jerome

(1859 - 1927)

Canadian-born American economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908 - 2006)

Winston Churchill

(1874 - 1965)

Icelandic historian, poet, and statesman Snorri Sturluson.

Snorri Sturluson

(1179 - 1241)

Greek dramatist Menander.

Menander

(c. 342 BC - c. 292 BC)

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

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929 - 1968)

Artemidorus

(c. 101 - c. 200)

Photograph of American writer and professor Paul Collins.

Paul Collins

American author, computer scientist, and futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Ray Kurzweil

Portrait of American general and first president George Washington.

George Washington

(1732 - 1799)

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

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

(c. 60 BC - c. 7 BC)

American columnist and editor John L. O’Sullivan.

John L. O’Sullivan

(1813 - 1895)

Depiction of Greek lyric poet Sappho.

Sappho

(c. 610 BC - c. 570 BC)

Portrait of Chinese Daoist Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi

(c. 369 BC - 286 BC)

Austro-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875 - 1926)

French theologian John Calvin.

John Calvin

(1509 - 1564)

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

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

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

Jean-Paul Marat

(1743 - 1793)

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

W.B. Yeats

(1865 - 1939)

American sociologist Robert K. Merton.

Robert K. Merton

(1910 - 2003)

American engineer Gordon E. Moore.

Gordon E. Moore

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Portrait of English-American writer and polemicist Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine

(1737 - 1809)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Photograph of American author Ben Tarnoff.

Ben Tarnoff

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

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

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

Yamanoue no Okura

(c. 660 - c. 733)

Lewis Mumford

(1895 - 1990)

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890 - 1969)

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

(1883 - 1937)

Henry Noel-Fearn

(1811 - 1868)

Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi

(1869 - 1948)

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)

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

H.G. Wells

(1866 - 1946)

Meta Stern Lilienthal

(1876 - 1948)

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

Charles Mackay

(1814 - 1889)

American writer Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury

(1920 - 2012)

English mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace.

Ada Lovelace

(1815 - 1852)

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

British author Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(1689 - 1762)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

British novelist P. D. James.

P.D. James

(1920 - 2014)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

British novelist and historian Tom Holland.

Tom Holland

American journalist William Safire.

William Safire

(1929 - 2009)

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

John Crowley

Feng Guifen

(1809 - 1874)

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

C.P. Cavafy

(1863 - 1933)

German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.

Friedrich Hölderlin

(1770 - 1843)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

American author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

(1783 - 1859)

French philosopher Charles Fourier.

Charles Fourier

(1772 - 1837)

Image from an illuminated manuscript of Boethius teaching two students.

Boethius

(c. 480 - c. 524)

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 - 1179)

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

Colin Dickey

American author Philip K. Dick.

Philip K. Dick

(1928 - 1982)

Polish-born American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1903 - 1991)