Books

Attractively bound in finely woven black cloth stamped brightly in gold on the front boards with the Prophet holding dancing figures in his hand, all enclosed in a golden ball; the gilt lettering on the spine has been rubbed away. There is a slightly convex crease across the front panel in the cloth just below the golden ball with the hand of the Madman and his dancing disciples. Clean and tight throughout with some patches of foxing to the frontispiece and the sides of the title page. With the 3 requisite illustrations on glossy stock by Gibran present and intact with some foxing to their margins. This copy is Signed and inscribed and dated by Kahlil Gibran to Hazel Newton on the fragment of a letter which has been glued to the top of the front endpaper: "With kindest wishes to Hazel Newton from Kahlil Gibran, 1922." Beneath the signed Gibran fragment it is also Signed and dated by Hazel Newton, from whose library I purchased this book and several other Gibran titles. She has also written in fountain pen: "Hazel Newton, July 5, 1921-- "Poor painter of Lebanon." On the front endpaper. (Gibran's first book and remarkably scarce, especially with the signed fragment from his letter.) The Madman, His Parables and Poems was first published in the United States byAlfred A. Knopfin 1918, with illustrations reproduced from original drawings by the author. It was Gibran's first book in English to be published and appeared five years before The Prophet. The Madman contains 34 poems and short parables. It also marked the beginning of the second phase of Gibran's career.[1]May Ziadeh, with whom Gibran had been corresponding since 1912, reviewed it inAl-Hilal, a magazine in Egypt. (Wikipedia).

A collection of parables and poems illustrating a man's journey to self-realization.