Kahlil Gibran Biography and List of Works

Lebanese-American philosophical essayist, novelist, mystical poet, and artist. Gibran's works were especially influential on the American popular culture of the 1960s. He also illustrated a number of his books with his own drawings. Gibran believed that if a sensible way of living and thinking could be found, people would have mastery over their lives.

"The human heart cries out for help; the human soul implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him."

Khalil Gibran was born in Bechari (Bsharri), Lebanon, a mountain village of Maronite Christians. A talented child, he was modelling, drawing, and writing at an early age. Gibran's mother took her children to the United States, but their father remained in Lebanon. The family settled first in Boston, then in New York. Gibran returned to Lebanon in 1897 for two years to study Arabic literature in Beirut at al-Hikma College. Gibran's artistic talents were recognized early and he was introduced to F. Holland Day, a photographer, who tutored him in art and literature. Through Day Gibran was given entrée to Boston society, where he acquired valuable contacts. AfterGibran's mother died when he was 20, his sister supported him while he established himself as a writer and painter. Gibran's most ardent benefactor was Mary Haskell, the headmistress of a progressive girl's school in Cambridge, who supported him financially for most of his career.

In 1904 Gibran had his first art exhibition in Boston. His first book, AL-MUSIQA (1905) was about music. It was followed by two collections of short stories and a novelette in 1912. From 1908 to 1910 he studied art in Paris with August Rodin. In 1912 he settled in New York, where he devoted himself to writing and painting. Though concerned with the transcendental, naked human bodies, tenderly intertwined, became the basic subject in Gibran's art.

Gibran's early works were written in Arabic. He also wrote for journals published by the Lebanese and Arab communities in the U.S. From 1918 he published mostly in English. His first book for the publishing company Alfred Knopf was THE MADMAN (1918), a slim volume of aphorism and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose. Usually Gibran used prophetic tone to condemn the evils that torment his homeland or threaten humankind. His style, a combination of beauty and spirituality, became known as 'Gibranism'. In 1920 he founded a society for Arab writers, Mahgar (al-Mahgar), and supported aims to revolutionize the classically conservative Arabic literature. Among Mahgar's members were Mikha'il Na'ima (1889-1988), Iliya Abu Madi (1889-1957), Nasib Arida (1887-1946), Nadra Haddad (1881-1950), and Ilyas Abu Sabaka (1903-47).

THE EARTH GODS (1931) was a dialogue in free verse between three titans on the human destiny. Gibran died of liver disease, possibly accelerated by alcoholism, in New York on April 10, 1931. Upon his death, his body was shipped back to his hometown in Lebanon, where alongside his tomb The Gibran Museum was later established. In his will Gibran left all the royalties of his books to his native village.

"When the souls rise in the
light of their joy, my soul ascends glorified by the
dark of grief.
I am like you, Night! And when my morn comes, then
my time will end."

Gibran's best-known works is THE PROPHET, a partly autobiographical book of 26 poetic essays, which has been translated into over 20 languages. The Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life. The resulting 26 sermons are meant to emancipate the listeners. In the 1960s The Prophet became a counterculture guide and in the 1980s the message of spiritualism overcoming material success was adopted by Yuppies. Critics have not treated the book well. Its mystical poetry is frequently read at weddings even to day.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
(from The Prophet: Marriage)

For further reading: This Man from Lebanon by B. Young (1945); This Man from Lebanon by B. Young (1945); Kahlil Gibran: A Biography by M. Naimy (1959); The Parables of Kahlil Gibran by A.S. Otto (1963); Kahlil Gibran by K.S. Hawi (1963); An Introduction to Kahlil Gibran by S.B. Bushrui (1970); Kahlil Gibran: The Nature of Love by A.D. Sherfan (1971); Kahlil Gibran by J. Gibran and K. Gibran (1975); Gibran of Lebanon, ed. by S.B. Bushrui and P. Gotch (1975); The Meaning of Kahlil Gibran by M.S. Daoudi (1982); The Lebanese Prophets of New York by N. Naimy (1985); Kahlil Gibran of Lebanon by S.B. Bushrui (1987); Kahlil Gibran: A Prophet in the Making by W. Shehadi (1991)

AL-MUSIQA, (1905)