German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Bertolt Brecht

(1898 - 1956)

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

(1762 - 1814)

Ibn Khaldun

(1332 - 1406)

Painted portrait of English poet John Milton.

John Milton

(1608 - 1674)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)

Black and white photograph of a young F. Scott Fitzgerald sitting at a desk.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896 - 1940)

Black and white image of English philosopher and political theorist John Stuart Mill.

John Stuart Mill

(1806 - 1873)

Black and white photograph of American writer and critic Anatole Broyard.

Anatole Broyard

(1920 - 1990)

Black and white photograph of German writer Hermann Hesse.

Hermann Hesse

(1877 - 1962)

French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes.

René Descartes

(1596 - 1650)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Christian scholar St. Jerome.

Saint Jerome

(c. 347 - c. 420)

Graham Greene

(1904 - 1991)

Young man in tie and jacket

Owen Johnson

(1878 - 1952)

Black and white photograph of American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath.

Sylvia Plath

(1932 - 1963)

Painting of humanist and scholar Erasmus.

Erasmus

(1466 - 1536)

Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Confucius

(551 BC - 479 BC)

Yan Zhitui

(c. 531 - c. 591)

British churchman and man of letters John Henry Newman.

John Henry Newman

(1801 - 1890)

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

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

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

Frederick Douglass

(c. 1818 - 1895)

Dave Eggers

Photograph of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Anna Politkovskaya

(1958 - 2006)

Italian artist, engineer, and scientist Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452 - 1519)

Photograph of American literary critic George Steiner.

George Steiner

(1929 - 2020)

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

W.B. Yeats

(1865 - 1939)

Nicholas Breton

(1545 - 1626)

Painted portrait of former American first lady Abigail Adams.

Abigail Smith Adams

(1744 - 1818)

Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer Baldassare Castiglione.

Baldassare Castiglione

(1478 - 1529)

Howard Singerman

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Diogenes Laërtius

(c. 201 - c. 300)

American journalist A. J. Liebling.

A.J. Liebling

(1904 - 1963)

John Dewey

(1859 - 1952)

Portrait bust of Greek historian Xenophon.

Xenophon

(c. 430 BC - c. 351 BC)

Photograph of British writer Roald Dahl.

Roald Dahl

(1916 - 1990)

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

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

Gao Yuan

American essayist and critic William Deresiewicz.

William Deresiewicz

French man of letters Denis Diderot.

Denis Diderot

(1713 - 1784)

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin of York.

Alcuin of York

(c. 732 - 804)

Color portrait of English philosopher John Locke.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704)

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

Andrew Delbanco

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

Black and white photograph of social reformer and pacifist Jane Addams.

Jane Addams

(1860 - 1935)

Color image of English novelist Charlotte Brontë with book in hand.

Charlotte Brontë

(1816 - 1855)

Japanese author and retired geisha Mineko Iwasaki.

Mineko Iwasaki

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Woman reading at a desk

Maria Montessori

(1870 - 1952)

Shinichi Suzuki

(1898 - 1998)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

(1817 - 1862)

Zitkala-Sa

(1876 - 1938)

Black and white photograph of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung seated with legs crossed.

C.G. Jung

(1875 - 1961)

Black and white photograph of critic and novelist Mary McCarthy.

Mary McCarthy

(1912 - 1989)

Elizabeth Bishop

(1911 - 1979)

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Salvador Dalí

(1904 - 1989)

American writer Eudora Welty.

Eudora Welty

(1909 - 2001)

Woodrow Wilson

(1856 - 1924)

American author and educator Helen Keller.

Helen Keller

(1880 - 1968)

Donald Barthelme

(1931 - 1989)

Black and white image of English scholar, writer, and clergyman Robert Burton.

Robert Burton

(1577 - 1640)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Image from an illuminated manuscript of Boethius teaching two students.

Boethius

(c. 480 - c. 524)

American black militant Eldridge Cleaver.

Eldridge Cleaver

(1935 - 1998)

Immanuel Kant

(1724 - 1804)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

H.G. Bissinger

Don DeLillo standing outside in a jacket, black and white photo

Don DeLillo

April Bernard

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

D. Graham Burnett

Black and white photograph of former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

Black and white photograph of historian and man of letters Henry Adams.

Henry Adams

(1838 - 1918)

Stanley Fish

French theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard.

Peter Abelard

(1079 - 1142)

Black and white photograph of American writer and exponent of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803 - 1882)

English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer

(c. 1342 - 1400)

Portrait of Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712 - 1778)

Faye Levine

(1944 - 2014)

Catherine the Great

(1729 - 1796)

French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault.

Michel Foucault

(1926 - 1984)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Richard Rodriguez

American philosopher and academic Allan Bloom.

Allan Bloom

(1933 - 1992)

James Hilton

(1900 - 1954)