Books

First edition, first printing, of the prose poems that earned the author worldwide fame. Praised by Auguste Rodin as "the William Blake of the 20th century", Gibran is one of a select group of literary geniuses whose greatest works were written in a language other than that of their birth. Born in Lebanon, Gibran emigrated to the US in 1895, when he was 12. The Boston publisher and photographer F. Holland Day funded his education, encouraging him to read Walt Whitman and study the drawings of William Blake. These two men, along with the Syrian writer Francis Marrash, became perhaps the most important influences on Gibran's distinctive treatment of love, freedom, and spirituality. An influential member of the Arab-American League of the Pen, a group of expatriate writers in New York, Gibran composed most of his earliest writings in Arabic. His first book in English, The Madman, was published in 1918, and The Prophet followed in September 1923, the first edition selling out within a month. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, vignette illustration to front cover in gilt, top edge black, others untrimmed. Frontispiece and 11 plates after drawings by Gibran. Contemporary ownership inscription and bookseller's ticket to front free endpaper, some pencil annotations to text, with the plates neatly captioned in pencil. Ends worn, corners less so, spine browned with titles dulled as often, a few sparse ink marks to rear pastedown, small ink stain at top edge near gutter affecting first few pages.

A book of 26 poetic essays covering diverse topics of life and the human condition.