Fridtjof Nansen

(1861 - 1930)

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

C.G. Jung

(1875 - 1961)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Li Qingzhao

(1084 - c. 1155)

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

American magician Harry Houdini.

Harry Houdini

(1874 - 1926)

Forrest Wilder

Black and white photograph of John Crowley sitting on a porch.

John Crowley

Depiction of Greek lyric poet Sappho.

Sappho

(c. 610 BC - c. 570 BC)

SimpliSafe Message Board

Carlo Ginzburg

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Plutarch

(46 - c. 120)

Joseph Mitchell

(1908 - 1996)

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 - 1179)

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

Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788 - 1860)

Louis-Sébastien Mercier

(1740 - 1814)

Artemidorus

(c. 101 - c. 200)

Portrait of Scottish biographer and diarist James Boswell.

James Boswell

(1740 - 1795)

Photograph of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Philippe Petit

Portrait of Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712 - 1778)

Dorothy B. Hughes

(1904 - 1993)

Image of Japanese poet and essayist Yoshida Kenko.

Yoshida Kenko

(c. 1283 - c. 1351)

Owen Felltham

(1602 - 1668)

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896 - 1940)

Elizabeth Carolina Keene

(1743 - 1778)

Antonio di Benedetto

(1922 - 1986)

Holly Haworth

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens

(1812 - 1870)

Engraving of Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian

(125 - c. 180)

Luis “DJ Disco Wiz” Cedeño

Photograph of Italian writer Italo Calvino.

Italo Calvino

(1923 - 1985)

Naguib Mahfouz

(1911 - 2006)

Samantha Hunt

Maria

Maria Mitchell

(1818 - 1889)

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

(c. 525 BC - 456 BC)

Philo of Alexandria

(25 BC - 50)

American poet, journalist, and essayist Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman

(1819 - 1892)

Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton

(1862 - 1937)

Norman Rush

Wisława Szymborska

(1923 - 2012)

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

Charlotte Brontë

(1816 - 1855)

Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri

(1279 - 1333)

Carl Sagan

(1934 - 1996)

Daniel Genis

Jonathan Crary

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

Franz Kafka

(1883 - 1924)

Bust of Hesiod

Hesiod

Alicia Gaspar de Alba

Seated man with a large white beard wearing a dark suit

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883)

Charlotte Forten Grimké

(1837 - 1914)

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Sukhdev Sandhu

Frederick A. Cook

(1865 - 1940)

Edwidge Danticat

H.M. Tomlinson

(1873 - 1958)

Laurent Joubert

(1529 - 1582)

Ovid

(43 BC - c. 17)

Japanese diarist and poet Sei Shōnagon.

Sei Shonagon

(c. 966 - c. 1025)

Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

Miguel de Cervantes

(1547 - 1616)

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

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

William Hard

(1878 - 1962)

Aelian

(c. 170 - c. 235)

Roaldus Richmond

(c. 1910 - c. 1986)

Sergei Eisenstein

(1898 - 1948)

Tayeb Salih

(1929 - 2009)

Photograph of American writer and naturalist Henry Beston.

Henry Beston

(1888 - 1968)

Ivan Sanchez

Jean Genet

(1910 - 1986)

Photograph of American writer Denis Johnson.

Denis Johnson

(1949 - 2017)

Black and white photograph of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson

(1850 - 1894)

John Rechy

Margaret Cavendish

(1623 - 1673)

Photograph of American writer Francine Prose.

Francine Prose

Jack Black

(1871 - 1932)

Gabriel García Márquez

(1927 - 2014)

Image of English journalist and sociologist Henry Mayhew.

Henry Mayhew

(1812 - 1887)

Li Yu

(1610 - 1680)

Yu Dafu

(1896 - 1945)

French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

(1894 - 1961)

Painting of Ivan Goncharov sitting in a chair.

Ivan Goncharov

(1812 - 1891)

Jean Baudrillard

(1929 - 2007)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Anne Boyer

Anne Boyer

Alan Furst

Loren Eiseley

(1907 - 1977)

Carlos Monsiváis

(1938 - 2010)

Ibn Fadlan

(c. 900 - c. 922)

Elizabeth Bishop

(1911 - 1979)

Alice Robb