Dorothy Parker working at her typewriter.

Dorothy Parker

(1893 - 1967)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Ernest Shackleton

(1874 - 1922)

American author Evan S. Connell.

Evan S. Connell

(1924 - 2013)

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

John Crowley

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Marco Polo

(1254 - 1324)

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

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

Joseph Conrad

(1857 - 1924)

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

(1817 - 1862)

American writer Dawn Powell.

Dawn Powell

(1896 - 1965)

Photograph of American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac

(1922 - 1969)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Billy Collins

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Virgil

(70 BC - 19 BC)

Photograph of British writer and journalist Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

Photograph of Danish writer Isak Dinesen.

Isak Dinesen

(1885 - 1962)

Painted portrait of former American first lady Abigail Adams.

Abigail Smith Adams

(1744 - 1818)

Bust of Hesiod

Hesiod

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

Portrait of E.M. Forster by Dora Carrington.

E.M. Forster

(1879 - 1970)

William Clark

(1770 - 1838)

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

(1902 - 1968)

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

Gertrude Bell

(1868 - 1926)

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

Homer

(c. 800 BC - 725 BC)

Apollonius of Rhodes

Greek geographer and historian Strabo.

Strabo

(c. 64 BC - c. 25)

Joris-Karl Huysmans

(1848 - 1907)

Photograph of Italian writer Italo Calvino.

Italo Calvino

(1923 - 1985)

Elizabeth Bishop

(1911 - 1979)

Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

Miguel de Cervantes

(1547 - 1616)

British author Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(1689 - 1762)

British writer Bruce Chatwin.

Bruce Chatwin

(1940 - 1989)

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado

(c. 1510 - 1554)

American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Frederick Law Olmsted

(1822 - 1903)

Swiss writer, philosopher, and television presenter Alain de Botton.

Alain de Botton

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Color engraving of Italian poet, scholar, and humanist Petrarch.

Petrarch

(1304 - 1374)

D. Graham Burnett

German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1749 - 1832)

American pioneer colonist Tabitha Brown.

Tabitha Brown

(1780 - 1858)

British author and eccentric Philip Thicknesse.

Philip Thicknesse

(1719 - 1792)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

British author Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley

(1894 - 1963)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Sepia toned photograph of Lewis Carroll in a suit, reading a book

Lewis Carroll

(1832 - 1898)

Essayist and novelist Pico Iyer.

Pico Iyer

Photograph of pilot, horse trainer, writer, and adventurer Beryl Markham on horseback.

Beryl Markham

(1902 - 1986)

English nurse Florence Nightingale.

Florence Nightingale

(1820 - 1910)

photograph of David Foster Wallace speaking at a podium

David Foster Wallace

(1962 - 2008)

Calvin Trillin standing in front of a refrigerator in a black and white photograph

Calvin Trillin

French author Xavier de Maistre.

Xavier de Maistre

(1763 - 1852)

Engraving of the medieval Arab traveler Ibn Battuta.

Ibn Battuta

(1304 - c. 1369)

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

Wu Cheng’en

(c. 1500 - c. 1582)

British writer Laurence Sterne.

Laurence Sterne

(1713 - 1768)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)

New York-based author Suketu Mehta.

Suketu Mehta

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Marilynne Robinson

Portrait bust of Greek historian Xenophon.

Xenophon

(c. 430 BC - c. 351 BC)

English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(1809 - 1892)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811 - 1896)

Painted portrait of Italian navigator Christopher Columbus.

Christopher Columbus

(1451 - 1506)

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.

Fernando Pessoa

(1888 - 1935)

Roman poet Catullus.

Catullus

(c. 84 BC - c. 54 BC)

Image of Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Bashō.

Matsuo Basho

(1644 - 1694)

Painting of a gray-haired man looking to the left

Meriwether Lewis

(1774 - 1809)

Eduardo Galeano

(1940 - 2015)

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

Margery Kempe

(c. 1373 - c. 1438)

Black and white photograph of Ryszard Kapuściński holding a book.

Ryszard Kapuściński

(1932 - 2007)