The Prophet

An immediate success when first published in 1923, ‘The Prophet’ is a modern classic, having been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than ten million copies in the United States alone. Today it stands as one of the most beloved and translated books in history.
As a prophet named Almustafa is about to board a ship to travel back to his homeland after twelve years in exile, he is stopped by a group of people who ask him to share his wisdom before he leaves. In twenty-eight poetic essays, he does so, offering profound and timeless insights on many aspects of life, including love, pain, friendship, family, beauty, religion, joy, sorrow, and death.

Poet, philosopher and artist, Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 near Mount Lebanon, a region that has produced many prophets. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. Kahlil Gibran died in 1931. His most famous work The Prophet, was published in 1923. By the time of his death, it was already firmly established as a classic book.

His power came from some great reservoir of spiritual life, else it could not have been so universal and so potent, but the majesty and beauty of the language with which he clothed it were all his own -- Claude Bragdon