Visions Of the Prophet

KAHLIL GIBRAN (1883-1931) was born in a small village in Lebanon and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1895. There he was recognized as an exceptional young man, and his artwork and writing were supported and promoted by moneyed mentors. By the 1930s, he had become a prominent figure within New York literary circles and mixed with the likes of W. B. Yeats, Carl Jung, and Rodin, all of whose portraits he painted. Chiefly known for his 1923 book The Prophet, which has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu, and is widely considered to be one of the most popular and inspirational writers of the last century.