American author Evan S. Connell.

Evan S. Connell

(1924 - 2013)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Haruki Murakami

Ifeanyi Menkiti

Black and white photograph of C. P. Cavafy wearing thick-rimmed black glasses.

C.P. Cavafy

(1863 - 1933)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867 - 1957)

Daniel Zwerdling

Paul Solotaroff

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Immanuel Kant

(1724 - 1804)

Fan Ye

(398 - 445)

Black and white photograph of Czech writer Karel Čapek.

Karel Čapek

(1890 - 1938)

Henry Knighton

Curzio Malaparte

(1898 - 1957)

Elias Canetti

(1905 - 1994)

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790)

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

Jennifer Jacquet

Jennifer Jacquet

Aleksandar Hemon

Photograph of British writer and journalist Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

The Bible

Russian author Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov

(1860 - 1904)

Robert Falcon Scott

(1868 - 1912)

John Gray

Ernst Jünger

(1895 - 1998)

José Saramago

(1922 - 2010)

Svetlana Alexievich. Sergento (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Svetlana Alexievich

Ducas

(c. 1400 - c. 1462)

Georges Cuvier

(1769 - 1832)

Engraving of a bust of Lucretius.

Lucretius

(c. 95 BC - c. 50 BC)

Thomas Bernhard

(1931 - 1989)

American diplomat, scholar, and conservationist George Perkins Marsh.

George Perkins Marsh

(1801 - 1882)

Herbert of Clairvaux

(c. 1133 - c. 1198)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Ayi Kwei Armah

Elizabeth Kolbert

Rebecca Solnit

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy

(1840 - 1928)

British author Mary Shelley.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(1797 - 1851)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Color photograph of writer and editor Garret Keizer.

Garret Keizer

Black and white photograph of Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi.

Primo Levi

(1919 - 1987)

Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon

(1609 - 1674)

English poet and novelist Siegfried Sassoon.

Siegfried Sassoon

(1886 - 1967)

Engraving of the medieval Arab traveler Ibn Battuta.

Ibn Battuta

(1304 - c. 1369)

Stephen Budiansky

Toribio de Benavente Motolinia

(1482 - 1568)

Hayden Carruth

(1921 - 2008)

Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Tacitus

(56 - c. 120)

Angelina Jolie

Paulus Orosius

(c. 385 - c. 420)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Nichiren

(1222 - 1282)

Yun Hoe

(1380 - 1436)

Gregory of Tours

(c. 538 - 594)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Aelian

(c. 170 - c. 235)

Jonathan Schell

(1943 - 2014)

Rubén Darío

(1867 - 1916)

Tom Bissell

Paul Virilio

Harold Bride

Harold Bride

(1890 - 1956)

Ibn al-Athir

(1160 - 1233)

British writer Bernard Mandeville.

Bernard Mandeville

(1670 - 1733)

Chaim Kaplan

(1880 - 1942)

Otto Friedrich

(1929 - 1995)

Claire Vaye Watkins

Mary Boykin Chesnut

Mary Boykin Chesnut

(1823 - 1886)

Gertrude Stein

(1874 - 1946)