The Madman: His Parables and Poems

By Kahlil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931) was a Lebanese-American poet, writer, and artist best known as the author of “The Prophet” (1923), which is one of the best-selling books of all time. Gibran's work covers such themes as justice, religion, science, free will, love, happiness, the soul, the body, and death. He is widely considered to have been one of the most important figures in Arabic poetry and literature during the first half of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1918, “The Madman" is a thought-provoking collection of aphoristic parables and poetry that explores the desires and motivations of humankind. Contents include: “How I Became a Madman," "The Two Hermits," "The Wise Dog," "The Good God and the Evil God," "Night and the Madman," "The Three Ants," "When My Sorrow Was Born," "And When My Joy Was Born," etc. Other notable works by this author include: “Music” (1905), “Rebellious Spirits” (1908), and “Broken Wings” (1912). This volume is highly recommended for fans Gibran's seminal work and it would make for a worthy addition to any collection. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Feb 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528788885

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and a philosopher best known for his, The Prophet. Born to a Maronite-Christian family in a village occupied by Ottoman rule, Gibran and his family immigrated to the United States in 1895 in search of a better life. Studying art and literature, and inevitably ensconced in the world of political activism as a young man dealing with the ramifications of having to leave his home-land, Gibran hoped to make his living as an artist. With the weight of political and religious upheaval on his shoulders, Gibran's work aimed to inspire a revolution of free though and artistic expression. Gibran's, The Prophet has become one of the best-selling books of all time, leaving behind a legacy of accolades and establishing him as both a literary rebel and hero in his country of Lebanon. Gibran is considered to be the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

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Kahlil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on 6th January, 1883, in the historical town of Bsharri, in northern Mount Lebanon, then a semi-autonomous part of the Ottoman Empire.

Due to his family's poverty, Gibran had no formal education in his early years except for the Maronite Catholic priests who would visit to teach him about the bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages. His father, who was his mother's third husband, was not a financially successful man, and after racking up gambling debts, was forced to take a position as a local administrator. However, in 1891, he was imprisoned for embezzlement and his family's property was confiscated. This prompted Gibran's mother to leave his father and migrate to the United States with her children in 1895.

They settled in the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community, in Boston's South End, where young Kahlil, enrolled at an art school in a nearby settlement house. He was taken under the wing of the avant-garde artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged Kahlil's creative flare.

In 1904 he held the first exhibition of his drawings at Day's studio. During the exhibition, he met a respected headmistress ten years his senior, named Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who went on to become his editor. The two of them were well-known to be great friends, but it later emerged that in private they were lovers. In fact, Gibran twice proposed to her but marriage was not possible in the face of her family's conservatism.

Gibran's early works of poetry were in Arabic, but after 1918 he decided to write mainly in English. It was in 1918 that the Alfred A. Knopf publishing company published The Madman, a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose. This style brought him great success with his 1923 work The Prophet. Although it received a cool reception when first published, its notoriety grew and it is now his most famous work, never having been out of print and translated into more than forty languages. In Lebanon, Gibran is still celebrated as a literary hero, which is not surprising as he is actually the third best-selling poet of all time, behind only Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.

Gibran died at the age of 48 in 1931 from cirrhosis of the liver and