Black and white photograph of Maria Bashkirtseva

Marie Bashkirtseff

(1858 - 1884)

Lillian Hellman

(1905 - 1984)

Black and white photograph of British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb at a desk.

Eglantyne Jebb

(1876 - 1928)

Painting of a young Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

(1819 - 1901)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Black and white photograph of psychologist G. Stanley Hall.

G. Stanley Hall

(1844 - 1924)

Portrait of Chinese painter and poet Xu Wei.

Xu Wei

(1521 - 1593)

Detail of mural featuring Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa and chronicler.

Jacobus de Voragine

(c. 1230 - 1298)

Black and white photograph of French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

(1900 - 1944)

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987)

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Longus

(c. 180 - c. 230)

Color photograph of writer and activist Ishmael Beah.

Ishmael Beah

Color photograph of American novelist and short-story writer Richard Wright.

Richard Wright

(1908 - 1960)

Color photograph of writer and editor Noam Scheiber.

Noam Scheiber

Color photograph of Princeton professor of English and Comparative Literature Michael Wood.

Michael Wood

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

Black and white photograph of Danish author Tove Ditlevsen.

Tove Ditlevsen

(1917 - 1976)

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

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858 - 1919)

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

Robert Burton

(1577 - 1640)

Sculpture bust of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop.

Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

Yu Zhih

(1809 - 1874)

Donna Tartt

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

Portrait of Japanese political figure and scholar Sugawara no Michizane.

Sugawara no Michizane

(845 - 903)

Elizabeth Bishop

(1911 - 1979)

George Saunders

Japanese author Yukio Mishima.

Yukio Mishima

(1925 - 1970)

Image from Codex Manesse depicting a tournament of knights.

Chrétien de Troyes

(c. 1165 - c. 1180)

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Horace

(65 BC - 8 BC)

Black and white photograph of critic and novelist Mary McCarthy.

Mary McCarthy

(1912 - 1989)

Black and white photograph of English poet Wilfred Owen.

Wilfred Owen

(1893 - 1918)

Black and white photograph of German novelist and essayist Thomas Mann.

Thomas Mann

(1875 - 1955)

Black and white photograph of British writer Doris Lessing.

Doris Lessing

(1919 - 2013)

Color photograph of Osama bin Laden, founder of militant Islamist group al-Qaeda.

Osama bin Laden

(1957 - 2011)

Portrait of English writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759 - 1797)

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

Black and white photograph of Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad.

Joseph Conrad

(1857 - 1924)

Black and white image of English novelist Anthony Trollope.

Anthony Trollope

(1815 - 1882)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Wang Jiusi

(1468 - 1551)

Painting of Jean de la Bruyère wearing a red cape.

Jean de La Bruyère

(1645 - 1696)

Harper Lee

(1926 - 2016)

Color photograph of American journalist and author Dave Cullen.

Dave Cullen

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

Oscar Wilde

(1854 - 1900)

Black and white photograph of English man of letters Cyril Connolly.

Cyril Connolly

(1903 - 1974)

Portrait of French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius.

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

(1715 - 1771)

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

Henry Adams

(1838 - 1918)

Black and white photograph of Alsatian-German winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Albert Schweitzer.

Albert Schweitzer

(1875 - 1965)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803 - 1882)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Black and white photograph of French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir.

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908 - 1986)

Color portrait of Russian poet, novelist, and dramatist Aleksandr Pushkin.

Aleksandr Pushkin

(1799 - 1837)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Black and white photograph of folksinger Phil Ochs.

Phil Ochs

(1940 - 1976)

Portrait of Russian political thinker and writer Alexander Herzen.

Alexander Herzen

(1812 - 1870)

Nikki Giovanni

Classical engraving of Aristophanes with a long beard.

Aristophanes

(c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC)

Color photograph of American writer Annie Dillard.

Annie Dillard

Image of Japanese poet and essayist Yoshida Kenko.

Yoshida Kenko

(c. 1283 - c. 1351)

Joan Didion

(1934 - 2021)

Painting of humanist and scholar Erasmus.

Erasmus

(1466 - 1536)

Suetonius

(69 - c. 130)

Portrait of American Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards

(1703 - 1758)

Portrait of German physician and writer Heinrich Hoffmann.

Heinrich Hoffmann

(1885 - 1957)

James Joyce

(1882 - 1941)

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

Jane Addams

(1860 - 1935)

Black and white photograph of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson

(1850 - 1894)

J. Edgar Hoover

(1895 - 1972)

Portrait of Philip Dormer Stanhope wearing a blue sash.

Philip Dormer Stanhope

(1694 - 1773)

Black and white photograph of German writer Hermann Hesse.

Hermann Hesse

(1877 - 1962)

Color portrait of the Italian writer and libertine Giacomo Casanova.

Giacomo Casanova

(1725 - 1798)

Engraving of Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick

(1591 - 1674)

W.H. Auden

(1907 - 1973)

Color portrait of English philosopher John Locke.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704)

Image of medieval traveler Sir John Mandeville.

John Mandeville

(c. 1300 - 1371)

Black and white photograph of German-language writer Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka

(1883 - 1924)

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

Jean-Paul Sartre

(1905 - 1980)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

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

Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)