Cesare Beccaria

(1738 - 1794)

French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769 - 1821)

J. Edgar Hoover

(1895 - 1972)

Photograph of American short-story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe

(1809 - 1849)

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Herodotus

(c. 484 BC - c. 425 BC)

Luís Bernardo Honwana

black and white photo of Groucho Marx wearing glasses and smoking a cigar from the side of his mouth

Groucho Marx

(1890 - 1977)

Sculpture bust of Greek dramatist Euripides.

Euripides

(c. 484 BC - c. 406 BC)

Pope Innocent IV

Pope Innocent IV

(1195 - 1254)

Sun Tzu

(c. 544 BC - c. 496 BC)

Image of French writer Honoré de Balzac with hand on chest.

Honoré de Balzac

(1799 - 1850)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Mary Ruefle

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Henry Kissinger

English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer

(c. 1342 - 1400)

British historian Edward Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon

(1737 - 1794)

Artist rendering of Hindu statesman and philosopher Kautilya.

Kautilya

(c. 350 BC - c. 300 BC)

Naguib Mahfouz

(1911 - 2006)

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

C.G. Jung

(1875 - 1961)

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

(1667 - 1745)

Edward Snowden

Lawrence Osborne

Livy

(c. 59 BC - c. 17)

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

(1842 - c. 1914)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Anaïs Nin

(1903 - 1977)

Frances Warfield

(1884 - 1969)

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

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

John Stuart Mill

(1806 - 1873)

Assia Djebar

(1936 - 2015)

Margaret Atwood

Jules Romains

(1885 - 1972)

Sandra Lee Bartky

(1935 - 2016)

Polybius

(c. 200 BC - c. 120 BC)

Nikki Giovanni

Maxim Gorky

(1868 - 1936)

Dana Priest

Color portrait of the Italian writer and libertine Giacomo Casanova.

Giacomo Casanova

(1725 - 1798)

Belle Boyd

(1844 - 1900)

Ruth First

(1925 - 1982)

Italian literary critic and novelist Umberto Eco.

Umberto Eco

(1932 - 2016)

Joseph Roth

(1894 - 1939)

American television critic Emily Nussbaum.

Emily Nussbaum

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

Charlotte Brontë

(1816 - 1855)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Statue of French medieval poet and historian Jean Froissart.

Jean Froissart

(c. 1337 - c. 1405)

Alicia Partnoy

John Banville

John le Carré

(1931 - 2020)

Hilary Mantel

(1952 - 2022)

Ian Fleming

(1908 - 1964)

Christa Wolf

(1929 - 2011)

Black and white photograph of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar.

Julio Cortázar

(1914 - 1984)

Former President of the United States Richard Nixon.

Richard Nixon

(1914 - 1994)

French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault.

Michel Foucault

(1926 - 1984)

Guy Debord

(1931 - 1994)

Ha Jin

James Bamford

Benedict Arnold

(1741 - 1801)

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

Don DeLillo