Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Christopher Buck, Kahlil Gibran, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

List of Subjects

Introduction ix REGINALD MCKNIGHT 147
Stefanie K. Dunning
List of Contributors xi
JIM WAYNE MILLER 161
MARY ANTIN 1 Morris A. Grubbs
Janet McCann
TOVA MIRVIS 177
T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE 17 Terry Barr
D. Quentin Miller
FLOYD SKLOOT 193
PIETRO DI DONATO 33 Ron Slate
Tom Cerasulo
GENE STRATTON-PORTER 211
TIMOTHY FINDLEY 49 Susan Carol Hauser
Nancy Bunge
HOWARD OVERING STURGIS 227
WALDO FRANK 67 Benjamin Ivry
Kathleen Pfeiffer
LEON URIS 243
JONATHAN FRANZEN 83 Jack Fischel
Stephen J. Burn
PATRICIA NELL WARREN 259
HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. 99 Nikolai Endres
S. Bailey Shurbutt
PHILLIS WHEATLEY 277
KAHLIL GIBRAN 113 Caleb Puckett
Christopher Buck
Cumulative Index 293
ANNE LAMOTT 131
Pegge Bochynski Authors List 567

vii
Contributors

Terry Barr. Terry Barr holds a Ph.D in English Nancy Bunge. Nancy Bunge, a professor at
from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, Michigan State University, has held senior Ful-
and has taught courses in Holocaust Literature bright lectureships at the University of Vienna
and Southern Jewish Literature. He has taught in Austria, at the University of Ghent and the
Modern Literature and Film Studies at Presbyte- Free University of Brussels in Belgium and at
rian College, in Clinton, SC, for the past 23 the University of Siegen in Germany. She is the
years. His essays have been published in Stud- interviewer and editor of Finding the Words:
ies in American Culture, The Journal of Popular Conversations with Writers Who Teach and Mas-
Film and TV, the American Literary Review, ter Class: Lessons from Leading Writers, the
and in Half-Life: Jew-ishy Tales from Interfaith editor of Conversations with Clarence Major
Homes. TOVA MIRVIS and the author of Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study
of the Short Fiction. TIMOTHY FINDLEY
Pegge Bochynski. Pegge Bochynski is a Visit-
ing Instructor of Advanced Writing at Salem Stephen J. Burn. Stephen J. Burn is an Associ-
State College in Salem, Massachusetts. She is ate Professor at Northern Michigan University.
the author of reviews and essays, including He is the author of Jonathan Franzen at the
those on the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, John End of Postmodernism (2008), David Foster
Updike, Flannery OíConnor, James Thurber, Wallaceís Infinite Jest: A Readerís Guide
Thomas Sanchez, Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, (2003), and co–editor of Intersections: Essays
William Sloan Coffin, and Anne Lamott. She is on Richard Powers (2008). His work has ap-
also the author of an essay on Joy Harjo for peared in Modern Fiction Studies, Contempo-
American Writers Supplement XII. ANNE LA- rary Literature, the Times Literary Supplement,
MOTT and other journals. JONATHAN FRANZEN

Christopher Buck. Christopher Buck, Ph.D., Tom Cerasulo. Tom Cerasulo is an assistant
J.D., is a Pennsylvania attorney and independent professor of English at Elms College in Chi-
scholar. He previously taught at Michigan State copee, Massachusetts, where he also holds The
University (2000ñ2004), Quincy University Shaughness Family Chair for the Study of the
(1999ñ2000), Millikin University (1997ñ1999), Humanities. He has published on film adapta-
and Carleton University (1994ñ1996). His tions, on ethnicity, and on the cultural history of
publications include: Religious Myths and Vi- American authorship. His recent work appears
sions of America: How Minority Faiths Rede- in Arizona Quarterly, MELUS, Studies in
fined Americaís World Role (2009); Alain American Culture, and Critical Companion to
Locke: Faith and Philosophy (2005); Paradise Eugene OíNeill. He is the author of Authors
and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Chris- Out Here: Fitzgerald, West, Parker, and Schul-
tianity and the Bahá’í Faith (1999); Symbol berg in Hollywood (University of South Carolina
and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Press, 2010). PIETRO DI DONATO
Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán (1995/2004), and
other book chapters, encyclopedia articles, and Stefanie K. Dunning. Stefanie K. Dunning is
journal articles. KAHLIL GIBRAN Associate Professor of English at Miami Univer-

xi
KAHLIL GIBRAN
(1883—1931)

Christopher Buck

THE ARAB-AMERICAN author and artist Kahlil Gib- States. Apart from a two-year study in Paris and
ran was a best-selling writer whose work has yet two brief return visits to Lebanon, Gibran spent
to receive critical acclaim equal to his popular his entire adult life—the last two-thirds of his
appeal. There is no question that Gibran’s work life, in fact—entirely on American soil, dying in
in Arabic was central to the development of New York at the age of forty-eight. In The
twentieth-century Arabic literature—in that Arab Prophet, the city of Orphalese is often said to
Romanticism begins with Gibran, the pivotal represent America (or New York).
figure in the Mahjar movement of émigré Arab Shahid underscores the fact The Prophet was
writers centered in New York. There is also no America’s best-selling book of the twentieth
question that Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The century, not counting the Bible, and that Gibran
Prophet (1923)—a small volume of aphorisms outsold all other American poets, from Walt
(wise sayings) offering pithy wisdom of an Whitman to Robert Frost. According to Gibran’s
almost prophetic quality—belongs to world New York publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, The
literature, for it is known and loved the world Prophet has sold more than ten million copies.
over. As an American man of letters, however, The book’s success was due entirely to its own
Gibran has received scant attention from Ameri- appeal, as Knopf never promoted it. Strangely,
can literary critics. Since The Prophet has yet to Gibran is arguably America’s best-loved prose-
be widely recognized as an American classic, and poet, whose market appeal continues despite criti-
the author yet to be fully accepted as an American cal indifference. It’s true that Gibran had what
writer, Gibran’s inclusion in the American Writ- might be called a double psyche, and inhabited
ers series requires some justification. two thought-worlds at once. As an Arab Ameri-
Eminent scholars including Irfan Shahid can, Gibran wrote in two languages: English and
(professor emeritus at Georgetown University in Arabic. Arabic was his mother tongue, and
Washington, D.C.) and Suheil Bushrui (professor English his second language. As an accomplished
emeritus and current director of the Kahlil Gib- man of letters of considerable influence in the
ran Chair for Values and Peace at the University Middle East, Gibran inspired a literary renais-
of Maryland at College Park) have made the case sance in the Arab world, such that all modern
for Gibran’s recognition as an American writer Arabic poetry bears the marks of Gibran’s. Yet
worthy of note. According to Bushrui, America is Gibran’s work has had little influence in Ameri-
entitled to claim Gibran as one of its sons (even can letters, despite its enormous popular appeal.
if not a native son) as fully and as authentically Notwithstanding, Shahid thinks that Gibran has
as his native Lebanon can lay such claim: “In his not been fairly treated as an American writer.
work, he became not only Gibran of Lebanon, The problem is exacerbated by the fact that,
but Gibran of America, indeed Gibran the voice categorically, The Prophet exists in splendid
of global consciousness” (1996, p. 10). After all, isolation, severed from its Arabic cultural roots.
the young Gibran spent only the first twelve years And so The Prophet will have to be evaluated, or
of his life in Bsharri (a village near the famous reevaluated, on its own literary merits and for its
“Cedars of God”), where he was born in 1883, singular contribution to the American literary
before emigrating with his family to the United heritage.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

BIOGRAPHY charges. At the time, Lebanon was a Turkish
A biography of Kahlil Gibran’s life is complicated province, part of Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon,
by the fact that Gibran himself spun some fanci- and Palestine) and subjugated to the Ottoman
ful tales about it. He embroidered, embellished, Empire, until its fall in 1918. In June 1895, while
lionized, and mythologized himself. He claimed, the elder Gibran languished in his Bsharri jail
for instance, that his father was a wealthy Arab cell, his wife, Kamila Rahme, left her native
aristocrat and that his grandfather owned a grand Lebanon and immigrated with her children to
mansion guarded by lions, and he did not resist America, where her brother lived. They arrived
speculation that he was the reincarnation of the in New York on June 25, 1895.
English mystic William Blake. But the real facts On December 3, 1895, the family moved into
betray Gibran’s humble origins, and it is neces- Boston’s impoverished immigrant South End, in
sary to demystify Gibran. Chinatown, where their cousins were living. To
Kahlil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, support her four children—Gibran, his younger
in Bsharri, a picturesque but impoverished Ma- sisters Marianna and Sultana, and her son by a
ronite Christian village, perched on a fertile ridge previous marriage, Peter (Butrus)—Kamila sold
between Qadisha Gorge and the spectacular grove cloth and lace in Boston’s then-wealthy Back
of Lebanon cedars now known as the Cedars of Bay. She opened a dry goods store on Beach
God in northern Lebanon. His original, full name Street with Kahlil and his half brother, Peter. On
was Gibran Khalil Gibran—the first name his September 30, 1895, Gibran entered Quincy
own; the second, his father’s; and the last, his School, where he was placed in a class for im-
grandfather’s. Raised in the Maronite tradition, migrant children who needed to learn English.
Gibran was a sensitive boy. His father, a bully Gibran’s name was shortened, with two letters
and a gambler, owned a walnut grove thirty-five inverted (from Khalil to Kahlil), whether through
miles from Bsharri. His father’s lordly preten- a clerical error, or because a teacher wanted the
sions (marked by his trademark amber cigarette boy’s first name to suit American pronunciation.
holder), extravagant habits, aversion to peasant- In any event, Gibran kept his shortened name,
type labor, mercurial temper, and addiction to the Kahlil Gibran, as his English pen name.
gambling game of domma prompted young Gib- Meanwhile, Gibran’s talent for drawing at-
ran to retreat to the surrounding countryside, tracted the attention of a growing number of
which was dominated by the Cedars of God. admirers, several of whom became his patrons.
Contemplative, inventive, and creative, Gibran Among them was Jessie Fremont Beale, a social
had no formal schooling in Bsharri, but he worker who, in 1896, when apprised of Kahlil’s
received private instruction from Selim Dahir, talent for drawing by a settlement house art
who taught the boy the rudiments of Arabic, his- teacher, Florence Pierce, wrote to her friend, Fred
tory, and art. The young Gibran was also mysti- Holland Day, asking if he would assist the boy.
cally inclined. Early in life, Gibran interpreted Day, a wealthy Bostonian aesthete and avant-
personal experiences as profoundly spiritual in garde patron of the arts, was also a photographer,
nature and attached religious significance to them. and he began to use Gibran, his younger sisters,
His father, Khalil, clerked in his uncle’s his half brother, and his mother as models for his
apothecary shop until he became so indebted own symbolist and semierotic “fine art”
from gambling that he stooped to working as a photographs. Day viewed the young Gibran’s
tax collector and enforcer (a job that was artistic and literary gifts as evidence of natural
considered below repute) for Raji Bey, the vil- genius, and he became the boy’s close mentor
lage headman and local administrator appointed and patron.
by the Ottomans. To put it bluntly, his father was In 1897, Gibran returned to Lebanon to study
a thug for the village strongman. In 1891, after at the Madrasat al-Hikmat (“School of Wisdom”),
Raji Bey was dismissed following numerous founded by the Maronite bishop Joseph Debs in
complaints, Gibran’s father was jailed on graft Beirut. In 1899, Gibran had an ill-fated affair

KAHLIL GIBRAN

with a twenty-two-year-old Lebanese widow, (1918), then The Forerunner (1920), and finally,
Sultana Tabit (against social taboos), memorial- The Prophet (1923).
ized in his Arabic work al-Ajnihខ ah al- In 1905, Gibran’s brief piece, al-Músíqá
Mutakassira, published in 1912 (translated into (Music) was published by the Arabic immigrant
English as The Broken Wings in 1957). In autumn press in New York City, marking the author’s
1899, Gibran came back to Boston, but he debut into the world of letters. In 1906, Gibran,
returned again to Lebanon in 1902, as a guide who opposed Ottoman Turkish rule and the Ma-
and interpreter to an American family. But when ronite Church’s strict social control, published
his mother became ill, Gibran returned to the his next Arabic work in 1906, ‘Ará’is al-Murúj
United States once more. (She died of tuberculo- (English trans., Nymphs in the Valley, 1948; the
sis on June 28, 1903.) work has also been translated as Spirit Brides),
an anticlerical collection of three short stories
Day’s mentorship continued to be crucial in
serving as a caustic critique of establishmentarian
Gibran’s life; he introduced the young artist to church and state. The Arabic poem al-Arwáhខ al-
the writings of the Belgian symbolist Maurice Mutamarrida (English trans., Spirits Rebellious,
Maeterlinck, to the work of nineteenth-century 1948), also incorporating a social critique, fol-
poets such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whit- lowed in 1908. During this same period, Gibran
man, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley and was working on a book about the philosophy of
also to the writing of various other British, religion and religiosity (also in Arabic); but that
American, and Continental poets from the turn of book was never published.
the century. Day’s patronage made possible In 1908, Mary Haskell sponsored Gibran’s
Gibran’s emergence as a new talent, both as artist undertaking of a three-year study at the Académie
and poet, as Gibran entered the prestigious circles Julian in Paris, a private art school where he
of Boston’s artistic and intellectual elite. In 1903, produced the series of paintings titled “The Ages
Day’s friend the poet Josephine Preston Peabody of Women” (1909–1910) and a portrait of Au-
arranged for an exhibition of Gibran’s drawings guste Rodin (1910). There he was exposed to the
at Wellesley College. In January 1904, Day held, work of the English mystic poet William Blake
in his own studio, an exhibition of Gibran’s art. (1757–1857), whose thought and art had a
Another exhibition was held in February 1904 at profound influence on Gibran. In 1910, Gibran,
the Cambridge School, where the headmistress Ameen Rihani, and Yusuf Huwayyik met in Paris,
was a progressive schoolteacher named Mary where they envisioned and drew up plans for the
Haskell; Haskell was ten years his senior, but she cultural renaissance of the Arab world.
and Gibran developed a close friendship that On his return to Boston in October 1910,
endured throughout his lifetime. (She declined Gibran earned his living through portrait painting.
his offer of marriage in 1910, and Gibran re- In 1911, he began work on his first English-
mained a bachelor for the rest of his life, despite language manuscript, eventually published as The
the considerable number of women who were Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918). He
drawn to the handsome and gifted artist and was frustrated with the shortcomings of the
poet.) After the exhibitions in early 1904, Day’s cultural scene in Boston, however, and, in 1912
Harcourt Buildings studio burned, destroying he made New York City his professional home.
Gibran’s entire portfolio. Gibran produced his finest work in his studio at
Not only did Mary Haskell remain Gibran’s 51 West Tenth Street (which he nicknamed “The
good friend and benefactress, she served as his Hermitage”).
editor as well. He continued to rely on her to In total, Gibran published seven spiritual
correct his punctuation and grammar, and oc- works in English: The Madman: His Parables
casionally suggest an alternative word for greater and Poems (1918), The Forerunner: His Parables
euphonic effect. From June 1914 to September and Poems (1920), The Prophet (1923), Sand
1923, he sought her advice on The Madman and Foam: A Book of Aphorisms (1926), Jesus,

KAHLIL GIBRAN

the Son of Man (1928), The Earth Gods (1931), his last work to appear during his lifetime. His
and The Wanderer: His Parables and Sayings remains were taken back to Lebanon for burial in
(1932). The publication in 1918 of The Madman his home village, arriving in the port of Beirut on
established Gibran as a writer worthy of note in August 21, and his body was eventually interred
America, inaugurating a new literary career in in the old chapel at the monastery of Mar Sarkis
English. Among his other Arabic works, Gibran in his native Bsharri, near which the Gibran
published Dam’a wa Ibtisáma (1914; English Museum was soon established to commemorate
trans., A Tear and a Smile), al-Mawákib (1919; his literary and artistic legacy.
English trans., The Procession), al-’Awásខ if On October 19, 1984, the U.S. Congress
(1920; English trans., The Storm; a collection of passed legislation authorizing the building of a
previously published work), Iram, Dhát al-’Imád memorial to Kahlil Gibran on federal land with
(1921, one-act play set in a lost Arabian city private funds. The result was the Khalil Gibran
mentioned in Qur’an 89:7; English trans., Iram, Memorial Garden, on Massachusetts Avenue
City of Lofty Pillars, published in Secrets of the directly opposite the British Embassy in Washing-
Heart), and al-Badá’i’ wa’l-Tará’if (1923, ton, D.C., which President George H. W. Bush
English trans., Marvels and Masterpieces). dedicated on May 24, 1991, calling the memorial
Fulfilling the promise he had demonstrated a tribute to Gibran’s “belief in brotherhood, his
as a youth, Gibran became an accomplished call for compassion, and perhaps above all, his
visual artist as well. (Along with drawing and passion for peace.”
painting, he also executed small wood carvings.)
In December 1914, Gibran had an exhibition of
his drawings and paintings at the Montross Gal- INFLUENCES
lery, New York. In 1917, Gibran had exhibits at
Gibran’s work resonates with that of Blake,
the Knoedler and Company Gallery, New York,
Keats, and William Wordsworth and of American
and the Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston. A
transcendentalists such as Emerson, Whitman,
collection, Twenty Drawings, was published by
and Henry Thoreau, and it arguably shows clear
Alfred A. Knopf in 1919. In January 1922,
marks of their influence. For instance, in Gibran’s
Gibran’s work was showcased at the Women’s
1919 Arabic work, translated as The Procession—
City Club, Boston.
Gibran’s most respected Arabic poem in verse—
In April 1920, Gibran and some fellow writ- the critic Ahmad Majdoubeh has found lexical
ers from the Arabic diaspora founded a group and philosophical echoes of Emerson and Tho-
they named al-Rábita al-Qalamíya (The Pen reau, revealing the direct influence of these
League), or “Arrabitah,” as they referred to it in exponents of New England transcendentalism. A
English. Gibran was elected president and the personal letter dated November 10, 1925, from
Lebanese author, Mikhail Naimy, secretary. This Gibran to the archbishop and metropolitan Anto-
was the first Romantic school in the Arab world. nious Bashir (who translated The Prophet into
Ardent nationalists, Gibran and other members of Arabic) offers insights into possible further influ-
the Arrabitah sought reform and Arab liberation ences on Gibran’s work. In this letter (translated
from colonialism through the power of the pen. from the Arabic by George N. El-Hage in 2005),
The society published a literary and political Gibran tellingly commends to the archbishop, for
journal, al-Sá’ihខ (The Traveler), edited by ‘Abd translation to Arabic, “four valuable books which
al-Masíh Haddád, which was widely read across I believe are among the best that Westerners have
the Arab world. They met regularly until Gibran’s written during our present time” (p. 12): The
death eleven years later. Treasure of the Humble (1896) by the Belgian
On April 10, 1931, Gibran died of cirrhosis symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck (rendered from
of the liver with incipient tuberculosis at St. the French original); Tertium Organum (1912) by
Vincent’s Hospital in New York. Two weeks the Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky; Folk-
before his death, he published The Earth Gods, Lore in the Old Testament (1918) by the Scottish

KAHLIL GIBRAN

anthropologist James George Frazer; and The that same day, in a letter to Mary Haskell, Gibran
Dance of Life (1923) by the British sexologist wrote that he had, in the presence of ‘Abdu’l-
Havelock Ellis. Bahá, “seen the Unseen, and been filled” (Bushrui
Other scholars theorize about the way in and Jenkins, p. 126). Juliet Thompson later
recalled Gibran telling her that his audiences with
which Gibran re-visions Christianity in the light
‘Abdu’l-Bahá had profoundly influenced his writ-
of Sufi (Islamic) mysticism. In the Madrasat al-
ing of Jesus, the Son of Man, which appeared in
Hikmat, beyond his required course of studies,
1928.
Gibran immersed himself in classical and contem-
porary Arabic literature, including Paris al- Ultimately, however, Gibran, while shaped
Shidyak, Francis al-Marrásh, Adib Isháq, and the by his influences, crafted his own art and writing
great Sufi masters Rumi, ‘Umar ibn al-Faríd, al- in his own way. The sum total of these “influ-
Ghazálí, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), and Ibn Síná ences” are perhaps best characterized as “conflu-
(Avicenna). This immersion was to have a lasting ences”—that is, the convergence of orientations
influence on Gibran: the American architect and ideas that were spun into prosaic gold by
Claude Bragdon recalls how, at the end of his Gibran’s synthetic power and gilded by his own
life, Gibran would freely translate Sufi poets to a sapiential genius.
circle of admirers and would recount folktales of From the sophomoric to the sublime, Gibran’s
his native Lebanon. Thus Gibran’s early works prose-poems may be characterized as a form of
effectively re-forge Sufi thought, in which, as secular wisdom literature, reaching audiences
expressed by Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins in with a spiritual—but not necessarily religious—
their biography of Kahlil Gibran, Gibran’s interest. That having been said, Gibran’s sage
“aphorisms, parables, and allegories closely advice, through the mouthpieces of his various
resemble Sufi wisdom—the themes of paradox literary personae, is more inspirational than
and illusion turning on the unripeness of a sleep- prescriptive in nature, and it rarely ventures into
ing humanity attached to the ephemeral” (p. 15). the realm of social teachings that might guide a
Thus in Gibran’s work (although he is by no society as a whole.
means a “Sufi poet”), man is portrayed as on the Ideologically, Gibran urged escape from the
arc of ascent, traversing spiritual degrees in draw- trappings of materialism (although sales of The
ing closer to God, in which one becomes increas- Prophet endowed him with a respectable income).
ingly godlike in the process. He encouraged transcending sectarian religious
Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and Rabindra- conflict, he promoted reform in the Arab world,
nath Tagore (whom Gibran met in December and he championed ideal East-West relations, in
1916) are cited as other influences, although which he believed he might play the role of
Bushrui and Jenkins emphasize that Gibran was cultural intermediary. While he promoted spiritu-
drawn to Nietzsche’s form rather than his formu- ality and virtue, he was not a paragon of it.
lations and identified with his passion more than Although mystically inclined, Gibran was not a
his philosophy. There is evidence of Bahá’í influ- mystic. But his art endowed life and nature with
ence as well: the New York artist Juliet Thomp- the mystique of divine mystery.
son, one of Gibran’s artistic circle of close friends Except for mentioning their publication in
and an adherent of the Bahá’í Faith, had lent him the course of his career, Gibran’s Arabic works, a
several works of its founder, Bahá’u’lláh, in the number of which have been translated into
original Arabic. These writings impressed Gibran English, will not be treated in the following
deeply, for he later declared that Bahá’u’lláh’s discussion, as Gibran’s works in English are what
Arabic works were the most “stupendous litera- distinguish him as an American writer of note.
ture that ever was written” (Bushrui and Jenkins, That having been said, Gibran’s Arabic works (in
p. 125). On Friday, April 19, 1912, Gibran drew, translation), will be consulted as an aid by which
in his studio, a portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844– to interpret some of Gibran’s salient themes in
1921), the son and successor to Bahá’u’lláh. On his English work.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

THE MADMAN nor serial selves. They are simply selves in dif-
ferent stages of spiritual development.
Out of the thirty-four parables that comprise of
The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918), In The Madman, Gibran’s contrast of the
eleven original manuscripts are preserved in Prin- soporific self and the sapiential self is inchoate
ceton Library’s Department of Rare Books and and undeveloped. Previously, in his Arabic work,
Special Collections as part of the William H. A Tear and a Smile (1914), Gibran had spoken of
Shehadi Collection of Kahlil Gibran. The order the “inner self” as a “spirit growing” within the
in which the parables appear in the manuscripts thew and sinew of the “flesh” or the “covering of
differs somewhat from their published sequence. matter” (p. 789)—yet the doctrine of the greater
Annotations in Arabic can be found throughout. self is scarcely developed beyond the spirit/matter
The Madman is said to have been based on dichotomy. Yet the theme of the benighted self
Lebanese folklore. and the awakened self may be traced throughout
Gibran’s mature works, where the doctrine
The book’s eponymous persona, the “mad-
matures as well.
man,” has had seven prior lives, and he begins to
recount experiences and expound parables. In the
latter part of the book, Gibran experiments with
THE FORERUNNER
personification of a blade of grass, a leaf, the
eye, sorrow and joy, and so forth. The Madman’s Most of Gibran’s work The Forerunner: His
desultory nature and lack of coherence is evi- Parables and Poems (1920) is composed of tales,
dence of Gibran’s developing yet unripened tal- interspersed with a few poems. The tales are very
ent insofar as his English work was concerned. much like Sufi tales. Seven of the twenty-four
While The Madman has been described as a morality tales The Forerunner are archived in the
thought-provoking collection of life-affirming William H. Shehadi Collection at Princeton. The
parables and poems, the book can scarcely be tale “God’s Fool” is set in the city of Sharia,
described as prescriptive in nature. It inspires which is an obvious reference to the Islamic code
self-reflection, but not a clear sense of self-direc- of law (although the reference would not have
tion—except insofar as Gibran’s most basic mes- been obvious to Gibran’s readers). The tale
sage is concerned, as exemplified by the last “Dynasties” takes place in the city of Ishana,
sentence of the chapter “The Greater Sea”: “Then which betrays possible Hindu influence, as Is-
we left that sea to seek the Greater Sea” hana is one of the five faces of the god Shiva. To
(Collected Works, p. 38; all citations are from what extent Gibran’s place-names are symbolic is
this 2007 volume). If The Madman has a mes- hard to say.
sage, that message is that of discovering the true The underlying theme of The Forerunner is
self—the greater sea is the greater self. the need to spiritually awaken. Here, in contrast
In “The Sleep-Walkers,” the “freer self” is to The Madman, Gibran’s doctrine of the awak-
mentioned. This implies another self, presumably ened self is further developed. It commands the
captive of passions and other limitations. In “The attention of the reader in the opening line: “You
Seven Selves,” the madman teaches that there is are your own forerunner, and the towers you have
a rebellious self, a joyous self, the love-ridden builded are but the foundation of your giant-self”
self, the tempest-like self, the thinking self, the (p. 53). Thus the prologue opens by saying that
working self, and the do-nothing self. The seven each person is his or her own forerunner, and
stages of the soul are a well-known Sufi para- that each person has a “giant-self” within, which
digm, although Gibran has taken liberties with it is the “greater self” (one of the tales is “The
here. In “Night and the Madman,” the Night tells Greater Self”) and “freer self” as well. The
the Madman of his “little-self,” of his “monster- greater self may be thought of as a “deeper
self,” and that his soul is wrapped in the veil of heart.” In “Out of My Deeper Heart,” Gibran
seven folds (p. 33). These are neither separate speaks of “man’s larger self” (p. 73). The Mad-

KAHLIL GIBRAN

man, in his parable titled “Crucified,” had to death in the marketplace after being freed.
exclaimed: “For we must be crucified by larger Gibran had partly written the second work, which
and yet larger men, between greater earths and was completed by Barbara Young (the pseudonym
greater heavens” (p. 39). That which is crucified of Henrietta Breckenridge Boughton, who
will resurrect with greater power, and so the claimed she was Gibran’s secretary and compan-
lesser self, when crucified, will rise as a larger ion for the last seven years of his life) and
self in a progressing expanding consciousness. published posthumously as The Garden of the
The spiritual self is opposed by the materi- Prophet in 1933. (To what extent that book actu-
ally attached self—the self that must be cruci- ally is Gibran’s authentic work is controversial.)
fied—which is described in various ways. In the Nineteen of the twenty-six discourses, or poetic
poem “Love,” Gibran speaks of the “weaker self” essays, as well as the prologue and epilogue (or
(p. 57), but later in “Beyond My Solitude,” the farewell) of The Prophet are archived in Prince-
two selves are mentioned together: “Beyond this ton Library’s Shehadi Collection.
burdened self lives my freer self” (p. 86). The The plot of The Prophet is skeletal. The
Forerunner’s final piece, “The Last Watch,” is a Prophet’s name is Almustafa—that is, “al-
sermon by the Forerunner himself, who speaks to Mustafa” (Arabic for “the Chosen” and one of
slumberers in their sleep, right before dawn. He the names of Muhammad)—in its more familiar
speaks like the prophets of old. He has loved one transliteration. Almustafa was a stranger who tar-
and all, “overmuch,” including “the giant and the ried twelve, lonely years the city of Orphalese,
pigmy” (p. 87; symbols for the spiritually waiting to return to the island where he was born.
awakened and spiritually undeveloped selves). From a mountaintop, he saw a ship with purple
The message is that spiritual awakening is sails slip through the mist, and he hastened to the
needed. If each one is a Forerunner, as the open- city to meet it. There he was met by a throng of
ing line explicitly says, then that Forerunner “sees people in a great square before the temple. They
with the light of God,” as is said in “The Last came to bid him farewell.
Watch,” which continues, “He speaks like the A seeress named Almitra entreats the Prophet
prophets of old. He unveils our souls and unlocks to impart to them his wisdom before he embarks
our hearts” (p. 90). The Forerunner within each on his way back home. Speak, Almitra beseeches
person is prophetic. Ultimately, the Forerunner Almustafa, of love. Speak, asks another witness,
becomes a Prophet, whose mission is to awaken of marriage. And so the Prophet speaks on topics
and illumine the soul within. that matter most in human life: “On Love,” “On
Marriage,” “On Children,” “On Giving,” “On
Eating and Drinking,” “On Work,” “On Joy and
THE PROPHET Sorrow,” “On Houses,” “On Clothes,” “On Buy-
The Forerunner, according to Gibran’s contempo- ing and Selling,” “On Crime and Punishment,”
rary Mikhail Naimy, was a title chosen deliber- “On Laws,” “On Freedom,” “On Reason and Pas-
ately by Gibran as a precursor of The Prophet. sion,” “On Pain,” “On Self-Knowledge,” “On
Gibran conceived The Prophet, published in Teaching,” “On Friendship,” “On Talking,” “On
1923, as the first of a trilogy, to be followed by Time,” “On Good and Evil,” “On Prayer,” “On
“The Garden of the Prophet” (on humanity’s Pleasure,” “On Beauty,” “On Religion,” and “On
relationship to Nature) and “The Death of the Death.” Of these discourses, the most popular in
Prophet” (on humanity’s relationship to God). American popular culture may well be “On Mar-
The first book is set on the eve of the Prophet’s riage,” which is used in a great many American
departure from Orphalese to his native island; the wedding ceremonies.
second is set on the island itself, in the garden of These topics reflect universal human
the Prophet’s mother; and the planned third concerns. Almustafa’s discourses may best be
volume would have the Prophet return to Or- characterized as spiritual meditations, yet they do
phalese, only to be imprisoned and then stoned not rise, much less aspire, to the threshold of

KAHLIL GIBRAN

prophetic or revelatory utterances. They are Haskell; Almustafa’s native island as Lebanon;
words of wisdom; they are sublime, but not and the twelve years in Orphalese as the twelve
divine. The Prophet, moreover, has been de- years Gibran spent in New York prior to the
scribed as neither a purely philosophical work publication of The Prophet.
nor a purely literary work, and therefore it oc- Unenchanted critics have criticized The
cupies an ambiguous position in American Prophet as platitudinous and petty. Others find
literature. Although English in form, it is Arabic Gibran’s masterpiece profound and ennobling.
in thought-form. Writing in the London Review of Books, Robert
Published in September 1923 by the presti- Irwin caricatured Gibran’s poetic craft by declar-
gious New York publishing firm of Alfred A. ing that “as latter-day Prophet, Gibran favoured
Knopf, The Prophet is Gibran’s masterpiece. a mock-Biblical delivery, larded with archaisms,
Composed, for the most part, in April and May and inversions of word-order for rhetorical ef-
of 1918, its original title, as a manuscript, was fect.” Bushrui and Jenkins, by contrast, privilege
“The Counsels.” Of its initial print run of 2,000, The Prophet as “the most highly regarded poem
The Prophet sold only 1,159 copies (although of the twentieth century” and as “the most widely
other sources claim that the print run was 1,300 read book of the century” (p. 2). The broad and
and that these sold out within a month or two). long-lasting appeal of The Prophet in American
To Knopf’s surprise, demand for The Prophet popular culture has never been satisfactorily
doubled the following year and again the year explained, but presumably it has something to do
after. The book sold 12,000 copies in 1935, and with the human hunger for deeper meaning in
late in World War II an edition for distribution to life, which established religions have tradition-
soldiers was published by the nonprofit Council ally provided. Given the widespread decline in
on Books in Wartime. Sales numbered 111,000 in church attendance and the waning influence of
1961, and 240,000 in 1964, according to a 1965 religion generally, does the appeal of The Prophet
article in Time magazine tracing the cultlike render it a surrogate gospel?
phenomenon that The Prophet had become. It
“Gospel” is, in fact, too narrow a word, in
went on to become the best-selling book of the
that The Prophet is not an exclusively Christian
twentieth century, apart from the Bible, and has
text; rather it is a fusion of Christian and Islamic
been translated into over forty languages.
(Sufi) mysticism. In religious terms, The Prophet
Of the experience of writing this book— could be considered not a social gospel but,
which is of modest length (less than twenty rather, a personal gospel—a gospel with a mes-
thousand words) yet of immodest ethos—Gibran sage of salvation from the ignorance of one’s
wrote to Archbishop Antonious Bashir: “You own true self, not of salvation from sin in the
know that this small book is a part and parcel of traditional Christian sense. Gibran himself
my being, and I hardly wrote a chapter of it epitomized the message of The Prophet: “The
without experiencing a transformation in the whole Prophet is saying one thing: ‘You are far
depth of my soul” (El-Hage, trans., p. 172). far greater than you know—and All is well’”
Admirers of the The Prophet respond to its (Bushrui and Jenkins, p. 238). In the chapter
luminous wisdom and its approach to the “Crime and Punishment,” Almustafa speaks of
numinous. the “god-self” (that is, the higher nature) and
Yet there is a hidden dimension to The what he calls the “pigmy-self” (that is, the lower
Prophet as well. Mikhail Naimy, Gibran’s friend nature): “Like the ocean is your god-self. ѧ Even
and, later, his critical biographer, saw The Prophet like the sun is your god-self; ѧ But your god-self
as an intensely personal production. One is dwells not alone in your being. ѧ But a shapeless
struck, certainly, by the visual resemblance pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for
between the portrait of Almustafa and that of its own awakening” (p. 122) The human person
Gibran himself. One can see Almustafa as Gib- is both benighted and enlightened, in that each
ran; Orphalese as New York; Almitra as Mary individual is “but one man standing in twilight

KAHLIL GIBRAN

between the night of his pigmy-self and the day While a reader may understand that passion is
of his god-self” (p. 124). This is Gibran at his emotion and emotion has motive power, and that
most pellucid moment: The giant within is the reason is pensive and therefore still, whether
god-self, while the dwarf within is the pygmy reason is best described as “rest” is controversial.
self, which stand in polar relation to each other Yet ultimately such definitions are not the point.
as day and night. The relation of the pygmy self The Prophet is exquisitely inspirational—it is not
to the giant self is developmental, progressive, intended to be ethically explicit or morally
evolving, like that of the acorn to the oak. But is prescriptive, nor is it a social panacea.
the god-self the spiritually awakened lesser self
grown to its full potential, or is the greater self a
cosmic principle, a world supersoul? There is no SAND AND FOAM
consensus among scholars on this issue, but the
latter interpretation seems persuasive, because it Gibran is the consummate aphorist, and his 1926
carries the inherent pantheism of The Prophet to volume Sand and Foam is primarily a collection
the extreme. of aphorisms, pithy bits of wisdom, strung like
In the volume’s concluding discourse, “The pearls across the skin of the slender volume’s
Farewell,” Almustafa says: “It is in the vast man pages. Some of the aphorisms in this work were
that you are vast, And in beholding him that I first composed by other writers in Arabic, then
beheld you and loved you” (p. 154). The concept translated by Gibran into English. For instance,
of the “vast man” is the key to unlocking the Gibran writes, “Love is the veil between lover
message of The Prophet. By “man” is meant and lover” (p. 185). This alludes to a couplet
consciousness. The greater the spiritual aware- composed by the Bahá’í founder and prophet,
ness, the vaster the man. Man is asleep, benighted Bahá’u’lláh’s. As it is written in an English
in oblivion to a higher reality (including his own translation of his mystical work The Seven Val-
higher being), until awakened by the dawn of leys and the Four Valleys: “Love is a veil betwixt
spiritual awareness. The seed of that awareness is the lover and the loved one; More than this I am
the realization that a person is far more than the not permitted to tell” (Marzieh Gail, 1991).
body, as the physical frame cannot contain the Despite its negative reception by critics, Sand
boundless spirit. Almustafa explains, “You are and Foam won popular acclaim.
not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to Gibran sustains his anthropology of the lower
houses or fields. That which is you dwells above and higher selves in this book, with phrasing
the mountain and roves with the wind” (p. 159). such as “You are but a fragment of your giant
Elsewhere in The Prophet, the message seems to self” (p. 225) and “rising toward your greater
be that love is the power of spiritual growth. It self” (p. 173). Rising toward the greater self is a
manifests most intensively in the passionate love process of expanding one’s awareness and seeing
between man and woman, yet that is merely a the greater picture in a vaster panorama un-
beginning for the wider embrace of love. Love bounded by limitations of narrow identities: “If
results in unity, and that sharing or merging of you would rise but a cubit above race and country
consciousness is expansive and redemptive. and self you would indeed become godlike” (p.
In “The Farewell,” the Prophet admits that 225). Elsewhere in Sand and Foam, the writer
his teachings may be “vague”: “If these be vague speaks of the “other self” as the greater self:
words, then seek not to clear them” (p. 159). “Your other self is always sorry for you. But your
This vagueness has not escaped the notice of crit- other self grows on sorrow; so all is well” (p.
ics who feel that The Prophet is overrated. As an 184). (This evokes Gibran’s précis of the mes-
example, in the discourse “On Reason and Pas- sage of The Prophet discussed above—“You are
sion,” Almustafa says that one should rest in far far greater than you know—and All is well”—
reason and move in passion, just as “God rests in and the idea as before, that God is latent within
reason” and “God moves in passion” (p. 130). each person as the greater self.)

KAHLIL GIBRAN

The book concludes with what may be iaphas and Annas are all archetypally alive in the
Gibran’s most prescriptive general counsel in recurring cosmic drama.
English: “Every thought I have imprisoned in Ernest Renan’s Life of Jesus (English trans.,
expression I must free by my deeds” (p. 228). 1863) was a major influence on Gibran’s concep-
Here, action follows cognition, if moved by tion of Jesus. His biographers Bushrui and Jen-
volition. Mere intentionality is inert, and action kins claim Baha’i influence as well: “The tem-
without knowledge and wisdom is a rudderless plate for his unique portrayal of Jesus was
ship. In Sand and Foam, the reader stands on the
inspired by his meetings in 1912 with ‘Abdu’l-
shore of the ocean of grandeur, gazes on the sea
Bahá, the Bahá’í leader, whom he drew in New
of wisdom, is awakened and enlightened by the
York, a man whose presence moved Gibran to
dawn of knowledge, is inspired by the breezes of
exclaim: ‘For the first time I saw form noble
love, is uplifted like a bird, and soars in the
enough to be a receptacle for the Holy Spirit’”
atmosphere of spiritual oversight in an invisible
(p. 252). This novel hypothesis, however, remains
world that endows the visible world with mean-
undeveloped. While Gibran was clearly impressed
ing and purpose—yet the reader must inevitably
by Bahá’u’lláh’s writings in Arabic, and by
return to the rigors of daily life and find a way to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in person, he was relatively
translate insight into action.
unfamiliar with the full scope of Baha’i teach-
ings and thus cannot be said to have subscribed
to them generally. The result was a gospel narra-
JESUS, THE SON OF MAN tive that is not seamless but rather is a patchwork
For twenty years, Gibran had wanted to write a of fictional reminiscences by those who knew or
life of Jesus. After Alfred Knopf gave him a two- had met the Nazarene, creating an impressionistic
thousand-dollar advance, Gibran abandoned The medley of memories that would entertain, even
Garden of the Prophet in order to work on Jesus, illumine, but not necessarily enlighten. ‘Abdu’l-
the Son of Man, which he began in November Bahá, rather than being an actual template for
1926. The book, published in 1928, was hand- Jesus, the Son of Man, could arguably have
somely produced with some of Gibran’s illustra- served as an immediate inspirational presence in
tions in color. Reviews were favorable, and the the mind of Gibran, while he was composing this
book remains the most popular of his works after secular yet sacred portrait of Jesus.
The Prophet. Is Gibran’s Jesus Christian? Clearly, the
The full title of this work is Jesus, the Son of figure portrayed in this volume is both orthodox
Man: His Words and His Deeds as Told and and extra-orthodox (not necessarily heterodox).
Recorded by Those Who Knew Him. This poly- Curiously, in “John the Son of Zebedee: On the
choral and imaginal life of Jesus is Gibran’s Various Appellations of Jesus,” Zoroaster, the
lengthiest work in English. It is a creative and prophet of the Persians, is identified as a previ-
reverential life of Jesus as told by seventy-eight ous incarnation of Jesus, as is Prometheus and
of his contemporaries, both real and fictional, Mithra. Not only does Gibran add apocryphal ac-
enemies as well as friends, and strangers from a counts to the life of Jesus, he enhances a number
distance—such as the Persian philosopher who of the sayings of Jesus by taking a familiar teach-
was a follower of the Persian prophet Zoroaster. ing and expanding on it. For instance, in “Simon
As such, Jesus, the Son of Man is a series of Who Was Called Peter: When He and His Brother
sketches from which a patchwork portrait of Were Called,” Jesus says to Andrew, brother of
Jesus emerges. At the very end, “A Man from Peter, on the shores of Galilee: “Follow me to
Lebanon Nineteen Centuries Afterward” speaks, the shores of a greater sea. I shall make you fish-
saying that seven times he was born and seven ers of men. And your net shall never be empty”
times he had died, that Jesus’ mother is seen in (p. 253); a reader might recall that “the greater
the sheen of the face of all mothers; that Mary sea” is a favorite Gibranian symbol for the Sufi
Magdalene, Judas, John, Simon Peter, and Ca- notion of the greater self, or the “perfect man.”

KAHLIL GIBRAN

The most extensive of Gibran’s edifying edits does not see. / And that is the secret of our be-
of the sayings of Jesus is in the chapter, “Mat- ing” (p. 431). In other words, the greater self, the
thew: The Sermon on the Mount,” in which Gib- spiritual giant, Christ-spirit is within. The begin-
ran embellishes Jesus’ beatitudes, proverbs, and ning of salvation is to awaken the sleeping giant.
other teachings. This, in turn, is followed by At the height of their debate, the Third God
Gibran’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. Sometimes proclaims: “Love is our lord and master” (p. 443).
the alteration or embellishment may be ac- Love is God on Earth. Beyond that, the debate is
complished by a single word, such as in Gibran’s convoluted and unsophisticated, with no clear
version of Jesus’ “cry of dereliction,” as scholars progression in reasoning. (There is no rhyme.)
call it. In “Barabbas: The Last Words of Jesus,” The Earth Gods is perhaps the least deserving of
Jesus, who is still alive on the cross, exclaims, Gibran’s English works. Its publication was
“Father, why hast Thou forsaken us?”—where anticlimactic. Fortunately, it was followed by the
the word “us” is substituted for “me” (p. 390). appearance of The Wanderer, which is more true
Some of Gibran’s sayings of Jesus are utterly to form and a more befitting legacy.
noncanonical, as in this saying from “James the
Brother of the Lord: The Last Supper”: “Heaven
and earth, and hell too, are of man” (p. 397). THE WANDERER
Gibran here has disenchanted the metaphysical
world of the principality of Satan and shifted at- Gibran finalized the manuscript of The Wanderer:
tention back to the true principal of evil—man. His Parables and His Sayings during the last
The biographical narrative is not sequential three weeks of his life. The original manuscript,
and is sometimes glaringly out of sequence. For however, is not extant; after she edited the
instance, “The Last Supper” appears shortly after manuscript, and once the book appeared in print
the Crucifixion account, mentioned above. The in 1932, Barbara Young destroyed it. The Wan-
anecdotal accounts are interwoven with the oc- derer is primarily a book of fables, tales told by
casional poem, typically a paean to Jesus. Jesus, the itinerant traveler whom a man chances to
the Son of Man, as a whole, is an artistically meet and invite to his home. The guest regales
original and eloquent tribute to the “Prophet of his host and family with edifying stories with
Nazareth.” various morals. Some of these stories serve as
social commentaries as well. Among the fifty-
two parables and poems, for instance, in “The
Lightning Flash,” a Christian bishop is asked by
THE EARTH GODS
a non-Christian whether there is salvation for her
As a complete work, The Earth Gods, published from hellfire. The bishop replies that only those
in 1931, brings Gibran’s literary work to a baptized in water and the spirit will be saved.
conclusion, as it appeared shortly prior to his Then a thunderbolt strikes the cathedral, igniting
death in same year. Illustrated with several a fire. The woman is saved by the men of the
exquisitely executed drawings by Gibran himself, city, but the bishop is consumed by the fire. This
twenty-eight manuscript pages of the book fabulous fable turns on the irony of the priest
(which correspond to pages 1 to 27, or two-thirds telling the woman that she is destined for hell-
of the published book) are archived in Princeton fire, when he himself is the one ultimately
Library’s Shehadi Collection. engulfed by fire; of she being saved and he, not.
The Earth Gods is a free-verse triologue The salvation of dogma is the antithesis of real
among three earth-born Titans, in what may be salvation.
considered a meditation on love. At one point, In “The Prophet and the Child,” the prophet
the Second God discloses the open “secret” that “Sharia” appears, with Gibran again drawing on
is at the heart of Gibran’s consistent message: the term for the Islamic code of law. In “The
“Yea, in your own soul your Redeemer lies King,” the author speaks of the “kingdom of
asleep, / And in sleep sees what your waking eye Sខ adik” (p. 466)—an Islamic term for “righteous”

KAHLIL GIBRAN

and name of Ja’far al-Sádiq (d.765 C.E.), univer- more perfectly illustrated than in “Khalil the
sally revered as a mystic in both Sunní and Shí’a Heretic”—one of the four short stories of Spirits
Islam, and regarded as the “Sixth Imám” by all Rebellious (although only three of the stories
Shí’a Muslims. In “The Three Gifts,” Gibran from the Arabic appear in Anthony Ferris’ transla-
writes of his birthplace, “Becharre” (p. 469), and tion (the other two being “Madame Rose Hanie”
in “The Quest,” two ancient philosophers meet and “The Cry of the Graves,” excluding “The
on a mountain slope of Lebanon much like the Bridal Bed”). Speaking transparently as the
one near Gibran’s childhood home. There is much character Khalil in this story, Gibran fictionalizes
personification throughout the stories, such as in himself as a young peasant man who challenges
“Garments” (where Beauty and Ugliness the avaricious prince, Sheik Abbas, and the cor-
converse), or “The Eagle and the Skylark,” in rupt Maronite church. In part 3, Khalil introduces
which a talking turtle enters into the conversation himself by name. He tells the story of how he
between the two birds. There are talking oysters,
had dwelled for a time in a monastery, where the
frogs, dogs, trees, sparrows, grass, and even a
monks addressed him as “Brother Mobarak”—
speaking shadow. Like the title of the book’s final
yet they never treated Khalil as a “brother.” They
fable, “The Other Wanderer,” the book may be
dined on sumptuous foods and drank the finest
thought of as a desultory disquisition on the
wine, while Khalil subsisted on dry vegetables
mysteries of life and death, in which the reader is
and water, and they slumbered in soft beds while
left to divine the wisdom of each brief tale.
the young man slept on a stone slab in a dank
and dismal room by the shed.

INTERPRETING GIBRAN’S ENGLISH WORKS BY
One day, Khalil recounts, he stood bravely
HIS ARABIC WORKS before the monks who gathered in the garden and
criticized them for corrupting the teachings of
Gibran’s early Arabic works may offer a key to Christ by segregating themselves from the people
better understanding Gibran’s salient themes in and enjoying the fruits of others’ labor in an
English. Gibran’s eight Arabic books are: Music unholy parasitism. Jesus had sent these corrupt
(al-Músíqá, 1905), Nymphs of the Valley (‘Ará’is monks as lambs among wolves, Khalil says—
al-Murúj, 1906), Spirits Rebellious (al-Arwáhខ al- that although they feign virtue, their hearts are
Mutamarrida, 1908), The Broken Wings (al- full of lust; they pretend to abhor earthly things,
’Ajnihខ a al-Mutakassirah, 1912), A Tear and a but their hearts are swollen with greed. For his
Smile (Dam’a wa Ibtisáma, 1914), The Proces- words, Khalil was branded a heretic, and he was
sion (al-Mawákib, 1919), and two collections of scourged and cast into a dark cell for forty days
previously published work, The Storm (al- and nights. In part 5, Kahlil the Heretic describes
’Awásif, 1920), Marvels and Masterpieces (al- the way that, in Lebanon, the noble and the priest
Badá’i’ wa’l-Tará’if, 1923), and Heads of Grain collude to exploit the farmer who has worked the
(al-Sanábil, 1929), (Music scarcely qualifies as a land and reaped the harvest to protect himself
book, however, since it is only eleven pages from the sword of the ruler and the curse of the
long.) To express his ideas in Arabic, Gibran first priest. We learn that Sheik Abbas conspired with
used the short narrative, but over time, he Father Elias to punish Khalil for having sought
employed the literary devices of parable, apho- shelter at the house of Rachel, the widow of Sa-
rism, allegory, and epigram—all of which became maan Ramy. In part 6, Khalil is arrested and
the distinctive stylistic hallmarks of his English brought to the Sheik’s home. In part 7, before a
works. throng of onlookers, Khalil answers his accusers,
In a 1908 letter to his cousin Nakhli, Gibran, Sheik Abbas and Father Elias, and tells them that
wrote: “I know that the principles upon which I the souls of the peasants are in the grip of the
base my writings, are echoes of the spirit of the priests, and their bodies are in the jaws of the
great majority of the people of the world” (quoted rulers. Winning over the villagers by force of
in Bushrui and Jenkins, p. 87). Nowhere is this argument and eloquence, Khalil then beseeches

KAHLIL GIBRAN

Liberty, and, in his prayer, he calls “Liberty” (p. ary pieces typically represent a single arresting
687) the “Daughter of Athens,” the “Sister of image. Gibran is also incapable of ironic detach-
Rome,” the “companion of Moses,” the “beloved ment, or even rational analysis. Gibran’s paint-
of Muhammad,” and the “Bride of Jesus” (p. ings and stories are dreamlike and ethereal.
688). Whether a painting, a prose poem, or an il-
The story has a happy ending. We learn that lustrated story, Gibran’s art touches the heart at a
a half a century later, the Lebanese people had prerational level. As in his painting, Gibran in his
awakened. In the future, fifty years later, a writing uses a vivid but essentially static image,
traveler, on his way to the Holy Cedars of but he does not explicate this link of emotion
Lebanon, is struck by contented villagers in and experience; his work is impressionistic.
homes surrounded by fertile fields and blooming While one may appreciate the extraordinary
orchards. Sheik Abbas’ mansion has since fallen force of Gibran’s moral seriousness as related to
to rubble. As for Khalil, his life’s history has various aspects of life, says Walbridge, the reader
been indelibly written by God with glittering let- should not expect from Gibran prescriptions for
ters upon the pages of the people’s hearts. living, reforms for reordering society, reasoned
While Nymphs of the Valley, Spirits Rebel- ethics, rational theology, conceptual depth, nor a
lious, and Broken Wings are all set in Lebanon, coherent philosophy. Gibran tends to express his
they set the stage for Gibran’s English works. moral and spiritual views in terms of dichotomies.
The advent of The Madman in 1918 marked He romanticizes the country and demonizes
Gibran’s transition to, and adoption of, English cities. Society and religion, for Gibran, are
as a universal language for literary purposes. systems of oppression, whereas nature and love
Lebanon recedes from the foreground and be- are what benefit humanity most. (Other scholars
comes a background, while remaining the bed- have commented on Gibran’s persistent dualisms
rock of Gibran’s basic orientation. as well, such as life and death, good and evil,
In his early Arabic works, Gibran may be love and hatred.) Gibran’s views do not represent
described as a social reformer, in a visionary sort practical teachings; as Walbridge points out, we
of way. In his English works, Gibran is more of cannot desert our cities to live as hermits at the
a spiritual guide, offering counsels for edification edge of the Qadisha Gorge nor can we all escape
and personal transformation. But despite his to live as couples in idyllic cottages overlooking
strengths in these respects, Gibran had serious Beirut in total abandonment of society.
limitations that must be acknowledged as well. What, then, are Gibran’s contributions in the
John Walbridge, an authority on Gibran and final analysis? In the Arab world, Gibran’s influ-
translator of Gibran’s The Storm (1998) and The ence was as profound as it was pervasive. What
Beloved (1998) from the original Arabic, has came to be known as “Gibranian style” was
framed some of the most persuasive critical marked, among other elements, by the electric
analysis of Gibran’s shortcomings. Walbridge cadence of his rhythms, in the drumbeat of his
notes that Gibran is not adept at narrative and incantations and repetitions; by the charm of his
that “his narrative harp has only a few strings” new poetic style; in his inventive and selective
(2001, online) As a writer, says Walbridge, Gib- choice of words, in brave abandon of arid Arabic
ran lacks the skills of subtle characterization or poetic diction; through the evocative power of
complex plots. Everything Gibran says is deadly words with emotional immediacy; by rhetorical
serious. There is never a trace of humor or irony reliance on “value words” such as beauty, love,
in his work (nor in his art), and thus he has a power, and justice; through structural use of bibli-
significant limitation on his range of expression. cal images that inform and sustain his narratives;
Walbridge sees Gibran’s English prose as preten- and by dint of soul-deep symbolism—that is, the
tious, his ideas as excessively mystical or just cage (symbol of oppression), the forest (symbol
trite; Gibran’s aesthetic is Arabic, not American. of sanctuary, freedom, renewal, and immortality),
Like one of his paintings, each of Gibran’s liter- the storm or tempest (symbol of destruction and

KAHLIL GIBRAN

regeneration), the mist (symbol of mystery and American it may or may not be. If a work such
eternity, or that which obscures), the child as The Prophet has entered the canon of “world
(symbol of perceptiveness and equilibrium), the literature,” then surely its author ought to be
river (symbol of the course of human life), the viewed as belonging to the American literary hall
sea (symbol of the great spirit or the greater self), of fame as well.
the bird (symbol of the soul’s search for the Beyond the question of whether The Prophet
divine), the mirror (symbol of contemplation), is an American classic, however, or whether Kah-
the night (symbol of soporific ignorance), and the
lil Gibran ought to be recognized, at long last, as
dawn (symbol spiritual awakening).
an American writer worthy of note, there is the
These carry over into Gibran’s work in question of Gibran’s significance for the twenty-
English, which is stylistically marked by a lyrical first century. Those who promote the idea of his
impulse, by rebellion against literary norms and importance today do so not for what he was but
established forms, and by impressionistic imagery
for what he represents; his importance is in his
with evocative power to effect emotional
message of reconciliation, of peace, of
elevation. Gibran’s ideological leitmotifs in-
brotherhood. Gibran has iconic value in the way
clude—to name some of the more obvious
he represents the embrace of East and West. It is
themes—the veneration of love, a pantheistic
quest for the mysterious in nature, the rejection Gibran’s greater self, as it were, that really mat-
of religious and political corruption, a passion for ters—not the person, but the paradigm.
freedom, and a belief in human brotherhood. In a speech in December 1995 to celebrate
the one hundredth anniversary of Gibran’s arrival
in America, Suheil Bushrui spoke of the impor-
SIGNIFICANCE OF KAHLIL GIBRAN AND THE tance of Gibran’s work and ideas for our time,
PROPHET and he pointed out the dual recognition that Gib-
On July 9, 2009, the International Astronomical ran has received in the academic and public
Union officially approved the naming of a crater, spheres in the United States—as represented by
one hundred kilometers in diameter, on the planet the University of Maryland’s creation of the Kah-
Mercury after Kahlil Gibran, thanks to the efforts lil Gibran chair and the dedication of the Kahlil
of Nelly Mouawad, a postdoctoral researcher in Gibran Memorial Garden in Washington, D.C.
the astronomy department at the University of Beyond this national recognition, said Bushrui,
Maryland, in association with the university’s Gibran also occupies a distinctive position among
director of the Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values the world’s great writers because of the universal
and Peace, Suheil Bushrui. Even though a crater appeal that The Prophet has enjoyed
on Mercury has now been named after Gibran, internationally. Gibran’s “stature and importance
his identity as a significant American writer is increase as time passes,” said Bushrui, because
still in question. Where is Gibran’s “crater” in “his message remains ѧ potent and as meaningful
the American literary critical landscape? Why is today” (“Kahlil Gibran of America,” 1996,
Gibran still largely “off the map” in terms of online). With “its emphasis on the healing
critical acclaim? process, the universal, the natural, the eternal, the
Whether or not The Prophet is an American timeless,” he continued, Gibran’s work “repre-
classic, and whether Gibran himself will be ac- sents a powerful affirmation of faith in the hu-
cepted by critics as an American writer of note, man spirit.” His name, says Bushrui, “perhaps
Gibran’s legacy transcends that category itself. more than that of any other modern writer, is
The Prophet, after all, falls outside conventional synonymous with peace, spiritual values and
frames of reference. It resists categorization. Yet, international understanding.” Gibran’s work
to be a great American author is, perhaps, to write imbues purely secular concerns with sacred
a work of universal quality, of enduring interna- significance, by enlarging individual identity with
tional appeal, irrespective of how qualitatively the “greater self” of the world at large. Indeed,

KAHLIL GIBRAN

perhaps the most important element in Gibran’s Universities, such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton,
work for our own time is that it conveys the do not teach him in their departments of English or
quintessential spiritual unity of Islam and Chris- Comparative Literature, and it is only recently that
he came to be taught, but in a non-Ivy League
tianity and of all religions. In his parable “War University, that of Maryland, by Professor Suhayl
and the Small Nations” (which is immediately Bushrui. The Prophet has passed the test of time as
preceded by “The Greater Self” in The an enduring work. Indeed, ten million readers can-
Forerunner), Gibran’s social message is embod- not be entirely wrong. Yet, The Prophet has not
ied in the words of a mother sheep to her lamb passed the threshold of the canon of American
literature.
(representing the “small nations”), as two eagles
(p. 4)
(powerful, hegemonic nations), each intent on
devouring the lamb, were fighting in the sky Although The Prophet has entered the canon of
overhead: “Pray, my little one, pray in your heart world literature, Gibran does not appear in
that God may make peace between your winged anthologies of American literature, even in col-
brothers” (p. 67). lections known for cultural diversity such as the
In the province of universal imagination, prestigious The Heath Anthology of American
Gibran’s “greater self” of the individual is Literature (where there is not a single line from
transposed to the greater, collective identity not Gibran). This critical indifference to the author of
only of nature, but of society itself. Throughout America’s bestselling book (apart from the Bible)
his works (both English and Arabic), Gibran goes far in explaining why The Prophet has been
draws from a palette of natural, spatial, and situ- so marginalized in American literary history. That
ational metaphors to convey the notion of an indifference is hardly disinterest; rather, it is a
interior, hidden, expansive, liberated, powerful, studied disinheritance of something distinctively
and spiritual “self”—one that has compassion for unique in the American literary heritage, and has
others. This “greater self” is not ontologically the paradoxical effect of raising serious questions
swallowed up by one vast, undifferentiated Over- about the critical recognition of greatness in the
soul in the Emersonian sense. Rather, the “greater face of so overwhelming an audience response. It
self” is greater by virtue of its identity with—not therefore makes perfect sense that Gibran’s
its identity as—the universe of other souls. Thus masterpiece The Prophet ought, at long last, to
Gibran’s “greater self”—rather than referring to be included in the American canon.
some amorphous, atavistic “Oversoul”—is the The Prophet is not without honor save in its
socially “wider self,” progressively self- own country. Perhaps it’s time for that to change.
actualized in part-to-whole harmony with the hu-
man family, or “the world.”
Gibran’s call for reconciliation, for the
realization of a “greater self,” addressed not only
the need for Christian-Muslim understanding that
Selected Bibliography
seems so relevant today; it acknowledged the
need for religious tolerance and understanding
that would encompass all religions and all WORKS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN
peoples. And, as the scholar Irfan Shahid points
out, Gibran’s poetry and ideas have stood the test ENGLISH WORKS
of time, the best of all critics. Nonetheless: The Madman: His Parables and Poems. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1918.
Although his Prophet has sold, according to one The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems. New York: Al-
estimate, ten million copies, thus outselling all fred A. Knopf, 1920.
American poets from Whitman to Eliot, the Ameri- The Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Reprint.
can literary establishment has not given him the Annotated, edited, and with an introduction by Suheil
recognition he deserves, and has not admitted him Bushrui. Oxford and Boston: Oneworld Publications,
to the American literary canon. The Ivy League 1995.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

Sand and Foam: A Book of Aphorisms. New York: Alfred A. CORRESPONDENCE
Knopf, 1926. Kahlil Gibran: A Self-Portrait. Translated by Anthony R.
Jesus, the Son of Man: His Words and His Deeds. New Ferris. New York: Citadel Press, 1959; London: Heine-
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. mann, 1960.
The Earth Gods. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. The Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell. Edited by
Annie Salem Otto. Houston: Otto, 1970.
The Wanderer: His Parables and His Sayings. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1932. Beloved Prophet: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and
Mary Haskell and Her Private Journal. Edited by Virginia
The Garden of the Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
Hilu. New York: Knopf, 1972.
1933. (Published posthumously in a volume completed
by Barbara Young. Whether this work is authentically Unpublished Gibran Letters to Ameen Rihani. Edited and
Gibran’s depends on how much of it was completed by translated by Suheil Bushrui and Salma Kuzbari. Beirut:
Barbara Young herself, as it is really the work of two Rihani House for the World Lebanese Cultural Union,
authors.) 1972.
Blue Flame: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran to May
Ziadah. Edited and translated by Suheil Bushrui and
ARABIC WORKS AND TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH Salma Kuzbari. Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 1983. Revised
Al-Músiqá. New York: Al-Mohajer, 1905. as Gibran: Love Letters: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gib-
‘Ará’is al-Murúj. New York: Al-Mohajer, 1906. Translated ran to May Ziadah. Oxford: Oneworld, 1995.
by H. M. Nahmad as Nymphs of the Valley. New York: “Gibran’s Unpublished Letters to Archbishop Antonious
Knopf, 1948; London: Heinemann, 1948; and by Juan R. Bashir.” Translated by George N. El-Hage. Journal of
I. Cole as Spirit Brides. Santa Cruz, Calif.: White Cloud Arabic Literature 36, no. 2:172–182 (2005).
Press, 1993.
al-Arwáh al-Mutamarrida. New York: al-Mohajer, 1908. JOURNALS, MANUSCRIPTS, AND DRAWINGS
Translated by H. M. Nahmad as Spirits Rebellious. New Twenty Drawings. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1919.
York: Knopf, 1948; London: Heinemann, 1948. Also
Gibran’s manuscripts, notebooks, and papers pertaining to
translated by Anthony Rizcallah Ferris as Spirits
The Prophet; The Madman: His Parables and Poems;
Rebellious. New York: Philosophical Library, 1947.
The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems; and The Earth
al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira. New York: Mir’át al-Gharb, 1912. Gods are held in the William H. Shehadi Collection of
Translated by Anthony R. Ferris as The Broken Wings. Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), Department of Rare Books
New York: Citadel Press, 1957; London: Heinemann, and Special Collections, Princeton University Library,
1966. Also translated by Juan R. I. Cole. Ashland, Ore: Princeton, N.J.
White Cloud Press, 1998.
Dam’a wa Ibtisáma. New York: Atlantic, 1914. Translated
by H. M. Nahmad as A Tear and a Smile. New York: COLLECTED WORKS
Knopf, 1950; London: Heinemann, 1950. The Essential Gibran. Edited and translated by Suheil
al-Mawákib. New York: Mir’át al-Gharb, 1919. Translated Bushrui. Oxford: Oneworld, 2007.
by M. F. Kheirallah as The Procession. New York: Arab- The Collected Works, With Eighty-four Illustrations by the
American Press, 1947. Author. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. (This is the
al-’Awásif. Cairo: al-Hilál, 1920. Translated by John Wal- edition cited throughout this essay.)
bridge as The Storm: Stories and Prose Poems. Santa The Complete Works of Khalil Gibran. Delhi: Indiana
Cruz, Calif.: White Cloud Press, 1993. Publishing House, 2007.
Iram, Dhát al-’Imád. Published posthumously in al-Majmú’a The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran. Edited by Martin
al-Kámila li-Mu’allifát Jubrán Khalil Jubrán; ed. L. Wolf, Anthony R. Ferris, and Andrew Deb Sherfan.
Míkhá’íl Nu’aymí. 2 vols.; Beirut: Dár al-Sខ ádir, 1964. Edison, N.J.: Castle Books, 2005.
(Standard Arabic edition of Gibran’s collected Arabic
publications and translations of Gibran’s English works
by Antខúniyús Bashír and ‘Abd al-Latខíf Sharára. Often BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
reprinted.). Translated by A. R. Ferris as “Iram, City of Bush, George H. W. “Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony
Lofty Pillars” in Spiritual Sayings. New York: Philosophi- for the Khalil Gibran Memorial Garden, May 24, 1991”
cal Library, 1947. ( h t t p : / / b u l k . r e s o u r c e . o rg / g p o . g o v / p a p e r s / 1 9 9 1 /
al-Badá’i’ wa’l-Tará’if . Cairo: Yúsuf Bustání, 1923. 1991_vol1_556.pdf).
Kalimát Jubrán. Cairo: Yúsuf Bustání, 1927. Translated by Bushrui, Suheil. Kahlil Gibran of Lebanon. Gerrards Cross,
A. R. Ferris as Spiritual Sayings. New York: Citadel U.K.: Colin Smythe, 1987.
Press, 1962. ———. “Kahlil Gibran of America.” Arab American Dia-
al-Sanábil (Heads of Grain; New York: al-Sá’ihខ , 1929. logue 7, no. 3:1–10 (January-February 1996).

KAHLIL GIBRAN

———. “Introduction.” In The First International Confer- ———. “‘A Strange Little Book.’” Saudi Aramco World,
ence on Kahlil Gibran: The Poet of the Culture of Peace, March-April 1983, pp. 8–9. (Online at http://www.
December 9–12, 1999. Bethseda, Md.: University of saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198302/a.strange.little.book.
Maryland Press, 1999. P. 7. (Online at http://www. htm)
steinergraphics.com/pdf/gibranprogramme.pdf) Nassar, Eugene Paul. “Cultural Discontinuity in the Works
Bushrui, Suheil, and Joe Jenkins. Kahlil Gibran, Man and of Kahlil Gibran.” MELUS 7, no. 2:21–36 (summer
Poet: A New Biography. Oxford: Oneworld, 1998. 1980). Reprinted in his Essays Critical and Metacritical.
Gibran, Jean. “The Symbolic Quest of Kahlil Gibran: The Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
Arab as Artist in America.” In Crossing the Waters: 1983.
Arabic-Speaking Immigrants to the United States Before Pierce, Patricia Jobe. “Gibran, Kahlil.” In American National
1940. Edited by Eric J. Hooglund. Washington, D.C.: Biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C.
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. Pp. 161–171. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gibran, Jean, and Kahlil Gibran. Kahlil Gibran: His Life “The Prophet’s Profits.” Time, 86, no. 7 (August 13, 1965).
and World. 1974. Rev. ed. Northampton, Mass.: Interlink, Salma, Khadra Jayyusi. “Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883–
1998. 1931).” In Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic
Hanna, Suhail ibn-Salim. “Gibran and Whitman: Their Liter- Poetry. Vol. 1. Edited by Khadra Jayyusi Salma and
ary Dialogue.” Literature East and West 12: 174–198 Christopher Tingley. Leiden: Brill, 1977. Pp. 91–107.
(1968). Shahíd, Irfan. “Gibran and the American Literary Canon:
Hawi, Khalil S. Kahlil Gibran: His Background, Character, The Problem of The Prophet.” In Tradition, Modernity,
and Works. Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and and Postmodernity in Arabic Literature: Essays in Honor
Publishing, 1972. (First published in the Oriental Series of Professor Issa J. Boullata. Edited by Issa J. Boullata,
of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the American Kamal Abdel-Malek, and Wael B. Hallaq. Leiden: Brill,
University of Beirut in 1963.) 2000. Pp. 321–334.
Irwin, Robert. “I Am a False Alarm.” London Review of Shahid, Irfan. “Gibran Kahlil Gibran Between Two
Books, September 3, 1998, p. 17. (Review of Kahlil Gib- Millennia.” Farhat J. Ziadeh Distinguished Lecture in
ran: Man and Poet, by Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins, Arab and Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern
and Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran, by Languages and Civilization, University of Washington,
Robin Waterfield.) Seattle, April 30, 2002. (Online at http://depts.washington.
edu/nelc/ziadehseries.html)
Karam, Antoine G. “Gibran’s Concept of Modernity.” In
Shehadi, William. Kahlil Gibran, a Prophet in the Making:
Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Literature. Edited by
Book Based on Manuscript Pages of “The Madman,”
Issa J. Boullata and Terri DeYoung. Fayetteville:
“The Forerunner,” “The Prophet,” and “The Earth
University of Arkansas Press, 1997. Pp. 29–42.
Gods.” Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1991.
Knopf, Alfred A. “Random Recollections of a Publisher.” Summers, D. S. “The Source of ‘Ask Not.’” American
Massachusetts Historical Society Boston Proceedings 73: Scholar 74, no. 2:142–143 (spring 2005).
92–103 (1961).
Walbridge, John. “Gibran: His Aesthetic and his Moral
Kusumastuty, M. Imelda. “The Mode of Expression and Universe.” al-Hikmat (Lahore) 21:47–66 (2001). (Online
Themes of Kahlil Gibran’s Aphorism in The Prophet.” at http://www-personal.umich.edu/˜jrcole/gibran/papers/
Phenomena: A Journal of Language and Literature 8, no. gibwal1.htm)
2:8–15 (October 2004). ———. “Kahlil Gibran.” In Twentieth-Century Arab Writers.
Majdoubeh, Ahmad Y. “Gibran’s The Procession in the Edited by Majd Yaser al-Mallah and Coeli Fitzpatrick.
Transcendentalist Context.” Arabica 49, no. 4:477–493 Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 346. Detroit: Gale
(2002). Cengage Learning, 2009.
Naimy, Mikhail. Kahlil Gibran: A Biography. New York: Waterfield, Robin. Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil
Philosophical Library, 1950. Gibran. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
———. Kahlil Gibran: His Life and His Works. Beirut: Wild, Stefan. “Friedrich Nietzsche and Gibran Kahlil
Khayyat, 1964. Gibran.” Abhath 22:47–58 (1969).
———. “The Mind and Thought of Khalil Gibran.” Journal Young, Barbara. This Man from Lebanon. New York: Knopf,
of Arabic Literature 5, no. 1:55–71 (1974). 1945.

Choisissez un second texte à lire en parallèle — une traduction, ou tout autre texte.