Italian artist and author Giorgio Vasari.

Giorgio Vasari

(1511 - 1574)

Painted portrait of Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

(1469 - 1527)

Susan Sontag

(1933 - 2004)

Jean Baudrillard

(1929 - 2007)

Sjón

Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio.

Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313 - 1375)

Greek dramatist Sophocles.

Sophocles

(c. 496 BC - 406 BC)

Patricia Highsmith

(1921 - 1995)

American showman P.T. Barnum.

P.T. Barnum

(1810 - 1891)

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Yasunari Kawabata

(1899 - 1972)

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

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

Sun Tzu

(c. 544 BC - c. 496 BC)

George Devol

(1829 - 1903)

American writer and editor St. Clair McKelway.

St. Clair McKelway

(1905 - 1980)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

David W. Maurer

(1906 - 1981)

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896 - 1940)

Sepia colored photo of Oscar Wilde sitting on a rock with a book in his hand

Oscar Wilde

(1854 - 1900)

Damon Runyon

(1880 - 1946)

Lawrence Osborne

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

Rod Blagojevich

German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Bertolt Brecht

(1898 - 1956)

Portrait of Chinese fiction writer Pu Songling.

Pu Songling

(1640 - 1715)

Black and white photograph of Mencken looking over his shoulder at the camera

H.L. Mencken

(1880 - 1956)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Korean poet and playwright Kim Chi-ha.

Kim Chi-ha

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

British scholar and military officer T.E. Lawrence.

T.E. Lawrence

(1888 - 1935)

Robert Hughes

(1938 - 2012)

Joseph Goebbels

(1897 - 1945)

Nicholas Pileggi

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Bernie Madoff

black and white pencil drawing of Moliere in an ornate frame

Molière

(1622 - 1673)

Canadian-born American economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908 - 2006)

French detective Eugène François Vidocq.

Eugène François Vidocq

(1775 - 1857)

American non-fiction writer David Samuels.

David Samuels

James M. Cain

(1892 - 1977)

Chester Himes

(1909 - 1984)

James Dabney McCabe

(1842 - 1883)

Novelist and psychiatrist Daniel Mason.

Daniel Mason

Portrait of English lyrical poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1772 - 1834)

Black power leader H. Rap Brown.

H. Rap Brown

Saki

(1870 - 1916)

Clancy Martin

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

Sinclair Lewis

(1885 - 1951)

American writer Robert Penn Warren.

Robert Penn Warren

(1905 - 1989)

Marguerite de Navarre

(1492 - 1549)

Rudolf Vrba

(1924 - 2006)

Italian businessman and con artist Charles Ponzi.

Charles Ponzi

(1882 - 1949)

American abolitionist and author Harriet Jacobs.

Harriet Jacobs

(1813 - 1897)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Ida M. Tarbell

(1857 - 1944)

Black and white image of French classical author La Rochefoucauld.

La Rochefoucauld

(1613 - 1680)

Andy Warhol

(1928 - 1987)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Janet Malcolm

(1934 - 2021)

Engraving of a bearded man seated with a crutch and writing at a desk

Epictetus

(c. 55 - c. 135)

Color portrait of German theologian and reformer Martin Luther.

Martin Luther

(1483 - 1546)

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

H.G. Wells

(1866 - 1946)

Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Dante Alighieri

(1265 - 1321)

Black and white photograph of African-American leader Malcolm X.

Malcolm X

(1925 - 1965)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

(1743 - 1825)

Painted portrait of Native American leader Black Hawk.

Black Hawk

(1767 - 1838)