Photograph of German literary critic Walter Benjamin.

Walter Benjamin

(1892 - 1940)

Sculpture bust of Roman teacher and writer Quintilian.

Quintilian

(35 - c. 96)

A.R. Luria

A.R. Luria

(1902 - 1977)

John Lukacs

(1924 - 2019)

Svetlana Alexievich. Sergento (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Svetlana Alexievich

Ibn Manzur

(1232 - 1311)

Matteo Ricci

(1552 - 1610)

Brewster Kahle

Brewster Kahle

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu

Joe Brainard

(1942 - 1994)

American psychologist and philosopher William James.

William James

(1842 - 1910)

Polish American writer and academic Eva Hoffman.

Eva Hoffman

Gene Tracy

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

José Saramago

(1922 - 2010)

Sima Qian

Sima Qian

(c. 145 BC - c. 87 BC)

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

Saint Augustine

(354 - 430)

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

(1839 - 1908)

Hugo Münsterberg

Hugo Münsterberg

(1863 - 1916)

Portrait of English-American writer and polemicist Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine

(1737 - 1809)

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

(1819 - 1891)

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Louis-François Ramond

(1755 - 1827)

Inga Clendinnen

(1934 - 2016)

Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson

(1859 - 1941)

Lady Sarashina

(c. 1008 - c. 1059)

French novelist Gustave Flaubert.

Gustave Flaubert

(1821 - 1880)

Josephus

(37 - 100)

Kevin Brockmeier

Gerda Saunders

Portrait of English lyrical poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1772 - 1834)

Bust of a bearded man wearing a turban

Al-Maarri

(973 - 1057)

Homesick Candles

Eric Hobsbawm

(1917 - 2012)

Sarah M. Broom

John Conyers

John Conyers Jr.

(1929 - 2019)

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

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712 - 1778)

Polish-born American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1903 - 1991)

Mary Antin

Mary Antin

(1881 - 1949)

Riverbend

American writer Lydia Davis.

Lydia Davis

Scholastique Mukasonga

Scholastique Mukasonga

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

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Pan Yue

(247 - 300)

Photograph of West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott.

Derek Walcott

(1930 - 2017)

Black and white photograph of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

(1828 - 1910)

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

Black and white photograph of Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

Luis Buñuel

(1900 - 1983)

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

Frederick Douglass

(c. 1818 - 1895)

Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Lorenz

(1903 - 1989)

Black and white photograph of critic and novelist Mary McCarthy.

Mary McCarthy

(1912 - 1989)

Richard de Bury

(1287 - 1345)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Anne Michaels. Photograph by Marzena Pogorzaly

Anne Michaels

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

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

Yoko Ogawa

Hugh of Saint-Victor

(1096 - 1141)

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

(1821 - 1867)

Lee Sandlin

(1956 - 2014)

Portrait of Chinese Daoist Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi

(c. 369 BC - 286 BC)

Samuel Johnson

(1709 - 1784)

Amina Saïd

Liu Yin

(1249 - 1293)

Sculpture bust of Greek dramatist Euripides.

Euripides

(c. 484 BC - c. 406 BC)

Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan

(1823 - 1892)

Ed Park

Ed Park

Richard Grey

(1694 - 1771)

Photograph of Jim Holt looking at a book.

Jim Holt

Gregory Bateson

(1904 - 1980)

Walter Map

(c. 1140 - c. 1209)

Colorized engraving of Voltaire wearing a wig.

Voltaire

(1694 - 1778)

Photograph of Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986)

Photograph of American science writer Virginia Morell with dog.

Virginia Morell

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

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

Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

Frederic Harrison

Frederic Harrison

(1831 - 1923)

Juan Goytisolo

Juan Goytisolo

(1931 - 2017)

British inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage.

Charles Babbage

(1791 - 1871)

Mitch Landrieu

Mitch Landrieu

Maurice Halbwachs

Maurice Halbwachs

(1877 - 1945)

Lewis Hyde

Lewis Hyde

Lucy Sante

Painted portrait of English physician and author Thomas Browne.

Thomas Browne

(1605 - 1682)

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

George Eliot

(1819 - 1880)

Samuel Butler

(1835 - 1902)