Stephen Burroughs

(1765 - 1840)

Black and white photograph of French novelist, playwright, and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jean-Paul Sartre

(1905 - 1980)

Robert Towne

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

color oil painting of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a red tunic with gray hair

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756 - 1791)

Joris-Karl Huysmans

(1848 - 1907)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Roman historian Sallust.

Sallust

(c. 86 BC - c. 34 BC)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Black and white photograph of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud with cigar.

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

British historian Edward Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon

(1737 - 1794)

William Jennings Bryan

(1860 - 1925)

Ukrainian-born Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol.

Nikolai Gogol

(1809 - 1852)

Mosaic portrait of a bearded man in red holding a book

Marco Polo

(1254 - 1324)

Loretta Napoleoni 

Portrait of young Arthur Schopenhauer wearing a brown suit and a cravat.

Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788 - 1860)

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Portrait of Philip Dormer Stanhope wearing a blue sash.

Philip Dormer Stanhope

(1694 - 1773)

Mark Singer

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Italian literary critic and novelist Umberto Eco.

Umberto Eco

(1932 - 2016)

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

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

(1675 - 1755)

Color portrait of English philosopher John Locke.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704)

Orson Welles

(1915 - 1985)

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

Photograph of American writer Ralph Ellison.

Ralph Ellison

(1914 - 1994)

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790)

Mortimer Neal Thomson

(1831 - 1875)

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

Jane Austen

(1775 - 1817)

Alexander Hamilton

(1755 - 1804)

Jackson Lears

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

Seated man with a large white beard wearing a dark suit

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883)

German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1749 - 1832)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

L.M. Sixel

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

Charles Mackay

(1814 - 1889)

John C. Calhoun

(1782 - 1850)

French theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard.

Peter Abelard

(1079 - 1142)

James Buchan

American sociologist and reformer W. E. B. Du Bois.

W.E.B. Du Bois

(1868 - 1963)

Photograph of Thorstein Veblen

Thorstein Veblen

(1857 - 1929)

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

Benjamin Franklin

(1706 - 1790)

Daniel Loeb

Herman J. Mankiewicz

(1897 - 1953)

Sculpture bust of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop.

Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805 - 1859)

American author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

(1783 - 1859)

Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

(106 BC - 43 BC)

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

(1667 - 1745)

Ayn Rand (Everett Collection Inc./Alamy Stock Photo)

Ayn Rand

(1905 - 1982)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

British novelist, translator and author Tim Parks.

Tim Parks

Painted portrait of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

Jeremy Bentham

(1748 - 1832)

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Hans Holbein portrait of Sir Thomas More.

Thomas More

(1478 - 1535)

Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Tacitus

(56 - c. 120)

John Maynard Keynes

(1883 - 1946)

Black and white photograph of a young Marshall McLuhan with a think mustache.

Marshall McLuhan

(1911 - 1980)

Florentine ruler and patron Lorenzo de Medici.

Lorenzo de’ Medici

(1449 - 1492)

Professor of anthropology Jack Weatherford.

Jack Weatherford

George Bernard Shaw

(1856 - 1950)

American novelist John Dos Passos.

John Dos Passos

(1896 - 1970)

Suetonius

(69 - c. 130)

Dennis Kozlowski

Joan Didion

(1934 - 2021)

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

British historian and author Ian Kershaw.

Ian Kershaw

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Henry Ford

(1863 - 1947)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Black and white photograph of a young John Ruskin wearing a suit.

John Ruskin

(1819 - 1900)

Photograph of Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

Color portrait of German theologian and reformer Martin Luther.

Martin Luther

(1483 - 1546)

Rainer Rene Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden

Hammurabi

(1810 BC - 1750 BC)

Elias Canetti

(1905 - 1994)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

German poet Heinrich Heine.

Heinrich Heine

(1797 - 1856)

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Photograph of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977)

Portrait of British poet Lord Byron.

Lord Byron

(1788 - 1824)

Black and white engraving of Roman author Petronius.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter

(c. 27 - 66)

Indiana University professor Edward Castronova.

Edward Castronova

Charlemagne

(c. 747 - 814)

Photograph of Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

(1835 - 1919)

American novelist Upton Sinclair.

Upton Sinclair

(1878 - 1968)

Ihara Saikaku

(1642 - 1693)

John Updike

(1932 - 2009)

English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer

(c. 1342 - 1400)

William Makepeace Thackeray

(1811 - 1863)

Dorothy Parker working at her typewriter.

Dorothy Parker

(1893 - 1967)

Artist rendering of Hindu statesman and philosopher Kautilya.

Kautilya

(c. 350 BC - c. 300 BC)

American author Tom Wolfe.

Tom Wolfe

(1931 - 2018)

Notorious B.I.G. (© MediaPunch Inc./Alamy Stock Photo)

The Notorious B.I.G.

(1972 - 1997)

Roger Starr

(1918 - 2001)

James J. Cramer

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)