Inga Clendinnen

(1934 - 2016)

Black and white photograph of critic and novelist Mary McCarthy.

Mary McCarthy

(1912 - 1989)

Pan Yue

(247 - 300)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Portrait of English-American writer and polemicist Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine

(1737 - 1809)

Louis-François Ramond

(1755 - 1827)

Josephus

(37 - 100)

Yoko Ogawa

Polish-born American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1903 - 1991)

Oil painting portrair Michel de Montaigne in red robes and white collar

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Homesick Candles

Colorized engraving of Voltaire wearing a wig.

Voltaire

(1694 - 1778)

Photograph of African American abolitionist and U.S. diplomat Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass

(c. 1818 - 1895)

Photograph of Jim Holt looking at a book.

Jim Holt

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

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712 - 1778)

Riverbend

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Samuel Johnson

(1709 - 1784)

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

(1839 - 1908)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson

(1859 - 1941)

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

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Mitch Landrieu

Mitch Landrieu

Lucy Sante

Portrait of English lyrical poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1772 - 1834)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

Lewis Hyde

Lewis Hyde

Photograph of German literary critic Walter Benjamin.

Walter Benjamin

(1892 - 1940)

Gregory Bateson

(1904 - 1980)

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Frederic Harrison

Frederic Harrison

(1831 - 1923)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Black and white photograph of Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

Luis Buñuel

(1900 - 1983)

Eric Hobsbawm

(1917 - 2012)

Lee Sandlin

(1956 - 2014)

French novelist Gustave Flaubert.

Gustave Flaubert

(1821 - 1880)

British inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage.

Charles Babbage

(1791 - 1871)

John Lukacs

(1924 - 2019)

Photograph of American science writer Virginia Morell with dog.

Virginia Morell

Bust of a bearded man wearing a turban

Al-Maarri

(973 - 1057)

Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Lorenz

(1903 - 1989)

Sima Qian

Sima Qian

(c. 145 BC - c. 87 BC)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

José Saramago

(1922 - 2010)

Portrait of Chinese Daoist Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi

(c. 369 BC - 286 BC)

Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu

A.R. Luria

A.R. Luria

(1902 - 1977)

Joe Brainard

(1942 - 1994)

Gene Tracy

Matteo Ricci

(1552 - 1610)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Sculpture bust of Greek dramatist Euripides.

Euripides

(c. 484 BC - c. 406 BC)

Anne Michaels. Photograph by Marzena Pogorzaly

Anne Michaels

Svetlana Alexievich. Sergento (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Svetlana Alexievich

Maurice Halbwachs

Maurice Halbwachs

(1877 - 1945)

Kevin Brockmeier

Ibn Manzur

(1232 - 1311)

Gerda Saunders

Hugo Münsterberg

Hugo Münsterberg

(1863 - 1916)

Liu Yin

(1249 - 1293)

Amina Saïd

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan

(1823 - 1892)

Mary Antin

Mary Antin

(1881 - 1949)

Brewster Kahle

Brewster Kahle

Scholastique Mukasonga

Scholastique Mukasonga

American writer Lydia Davis.

Lydia Davis

Ed Park

Ed Park

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Polish American writer and academic Eva Hoffman.

Eva Hoffman

Photograph of West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott.

Derek Walcott

(1930 - 2017)

Samuel Butler

(1835 - 1902)

Hugh of Saint-Victor

(1096 - 1141)

Sarah M. Broom

Richard de Bury

(1287 - 1345)

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

Painted portrait of English physician and author Thomas Browne.

Thomas Browne

(1605 - 1682)

Juan Goytisolo

Juan Goytisolo

(1931 - 2017)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Richard Grey

(1694 - 1771)

John Conyers

John Conyers Jr.

(1929 - 2019)

Walter Map

(c. 1140 - c. 1209)

Lady Sarashina

(c. 1008 - c. 1059)