Matthew Jennett, 1942- , was the Curator of Rare Books at the American College of Greece. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut in March 1942. He attended Blackrock College in Dublin, Ireland and the University of Connecticut. In 1973, he and his wife Sheila Jennett co-founded Pharos Books, a publisher which promotes modernist literature from 1850 to the present. He also worked as the Curator of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Archives at the American College of Greece for twelve years. In addition to his interest in publishing and book design, Jennett was also a sculptor, painter, photographer, and jazz guitarist.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1892-1950, was an American poet and playwright. She was born on February 22, 1892 in Rockland, Maine. When she was twenty-one, she enrolled in Vassar College, graduating in 1917. She then moved to Greenwich Village in New York city where she established her career as a poet, began her involvement in feminist activism, and co-founded the Cherry Lane Theater. In 1923 she became the third woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her poem "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver." In addition to her plays and poetry, Millay also published short stories under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. In 1925, she and her husband Eugen Jan Boissevain, 1880-1949, purchased Steepletop near Austerlitz, New York. Though plagued by ill health for many years, Millay continued to write throughout the 1930s and 40s. During the Second World War, she devoted her talents to the war effort, damaging her reputation as a poet. Millay died on October 19, 1950 and is buried with her husband at Steepletop.

Charles Olson, 1910-1970, was an American poet and writer. He was born on December 27, 1910 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He studied English literature at Wesleyan University, graduating in 1932 before earning his M.A. in 1933. He enrolled in Harvard University to pursue his P.h.D. in American Civilization 1936, but he failed to finish his dissertation. However, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his research on the works of Herman Melville, and he published the resulting book Call Me Ishmael in 1947. After a brief career in politics in which he worked for the Democratic National Committee and Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 presidential campaign, Olson dedicated himself to a literary career. In 1948 he became a visiting professor at the avant-garde Black Mountain College. He would later become rector of the college, supporting a large number of artists including John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, and Ed Dorn. His own poetry was considered foundational in the postmodern movement, a link between the poetry of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the later poetry written by the New American poets. He died on January 10, 1970. His epic The Maximus Poems was completed and published posthumously in 1983.

Alan Sillitoe, 1928-2010, was an English writer. He was born on March 4, 1929 in Nottingham, England, the son of a tannery laborer. He left school at 14 to work in a bicycle plant, and later joined the Royal Air Force. He served as a radio operator from 1946-1949 in Malaya, and, upon leaving the service, was found to have tuberculosis confining him to bed for many months. A blessing in disguise, Sillitoe received a small disability pension and so was able to pursue his dream of "learning to write." His first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was proclaimed by some critics as the finest novel of 1958. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (contained in a short story collection of the same name) firmly established his literary reputation the following year. Both have been translated into numerous languages, made into films, and performed on stage and on television. Sillitoe has written and published a number of other novels, in addition to magazine and newspaper articles, poetry and many short stories. He died on April 25, 2010.

Henry W. Wenning, 1910-1987, was the founder of Henry W. Wenning Rare Books. He was born on October 10, 1910 in New York City. He spent the 1930s and 40s working as a labor union organizer and insurance company executive, first as the national secretary treasurer of State, County, and Municipal Workers of America, then as the executive vice president of the Martin E. Segal company. He entered the rare book business in 1958 as the proprietor of Henry W. Wenning Rare Books in New Haven, Connecticut. As a bookseller and collector, he specialized in literary manuscripts and first editions of 20th-century American, British, and continental literature. He was also a collector and frequent correspondent of Samuel Beckett. Wenning closed his bookstore in 1967, sold his stock to York University, and accepted the position of Collection Development Officer at the John M. Olin Library at Washington University, St. Louis. However, he changed his mind at the last minute and instead joined the bookselling firm of C. A. Stonehill in partnership with Robert Barry, Sr. and Robert Barry, Jr. He continued in the rare book trade until 1971, when he returned to his previous career as a consultant with the Martin E. Segal Company. He died on May 5, 1987.