Hesiod was a Greek contemporary of Homer, and likewise an epic poet. His Works and Days sketches the year-round work on a homestead.

Start with: Time to Plow Again

Socrates is known primarily through the writings of his great student Plato. Plato’s Apology gives an account of the trial in which Socrates was condemned to death by an Athenian jury.

Start with: When in Doubt: The Go-To Principle, Living an Examined Life, and Looking Forward to Death

Xenophon was a soldier, historian, and philosopher of Athens. Like Plato, he wrote dialogues featuring Socrates as a great teacher. Among these dialogues is Oeconomicus, translated as The Estate Manager, in which we get an insight into the structure and principles of the ancient household, and perhaps ours too.

Start with: Need: The Hidden Key to Wealth, Two Reasons to Take Cool Showers and Eating Like a Human

Ben Sira is a Jewish scribe whose writings present the cosmos as a masterpiece of order.

Start with: Why a Doctor Prays and The Hunt for Wisdom

Virgil, a great Roman poet, is the author of The Aeneid and the lesser-known work, The Georgics. In the Divine Comedy he appears as Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory. 

Start with: Cleaving the Earth with a Plow, Another Gift in Suffering, Cherishing Your Spouse in Your Children, and Thankful for When Children Were Young

Augustine was one of the greatest minds and most influential writers in early Christianity. In addition to his Confessions, the landmark autobiography in which he details his conversion from vanity and sexual immorality, he wrote numerous works in defense and exposition of his late-found faith, most notably The City of God.

Start with: The Key to Peace and Enduring Change

Saint Benedict of Nursia is considered the father of western monasticism.

Start with: Silence of Monks

Saint Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the greatest of medieval theologians and philosophers. He called Aristotle “The Philosopher” and wrote commentaries on all his major works.

Start with: Hearing the Way to Life

Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English Jesuit priest and is considered one of the greatest of Victorian poets.

Start with: What is all this Juice?

Hilaire Belloc, born of a French father and English mother, was a poet, historian, and essayist.

Start with: Making the Times that Matter and The Fall of Leaves

J. R. R. Tolkien was an English professor, poet, and author. His fictional works, most notably the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, are among the best-selling books ever published.

Start with: Living in Times You Did Not Choose and The Last Defense of Our Homes

Josef Pieper was a German philosopher in the tradition of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Many of his works have been translated into English and are still in print, including Leisure the Basis of Culture, Happiness and Contemplation, A Theory of Festivity, and The Four Cardinal Virtues, to name a few.

Start with: A New Attitude Toward Tradition and Easter, That the Hidden Festivity Break Through

Wendell Berry (1934–) is a farmer, essayist, novelist, and activist who lives on his homeplace in northern Kentucky.

Start with: Every Household: The Home of Stewardship and Knowing Where Our Food Comes From

Leon Kass (1939–) is Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. In his words, he is an “old-fashioned humanist. A humanist is concerned broadly with all aspects of human life, not just the ethical.”

Start with: Start with How You Eat and Reclaiming Manners Silence of Monks