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Gibran Kahlil Gibran Biography and Works
Poet, philosopher, and artist, was born
in Lebanon, a land that has produced many prophets. The millions of
Arabic-speaking peoples familiar with his writings in that language consider him
the genius of his age. But he was a man whose fame and influence spread far
beyond the Near East. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty
languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals
of the world. In the United States, which he made his home during the last
twenty years of his life, he began to write in English.
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1883
Gibran Kahlil Gibran was born to a Maronite family, in Bsharri, a town
at the foot of Mount Fam al-MIzab, near the Cedar grove in North
Lebanon. He was the first born to his mother from her second marriage,
her having previously been a widow with only one son, Butros.
1885
Birth of his sister Marianna.
1887
Birth of his second sister, Sultana. 1888 Entered a
one-class village school where he learnt the rudiments of Arabic, Syriac,
and Arithmetic.
1894
Emigrated with his two sisters and half-brother to
Boston, U.S.A. settling in Chinatown. The father, Khalil Gibran, a tax
collector and drunkard stayed behind.
1895
Butros opened a small shop, the family's only source
of income, while Gibran joined a local school where his name was
anglicized to Kahlil Gibran.
1897
Showed particular promise in his classes of drawing
and painting. Was introduced to the esoteric Bostonian artist-
photographer Fred Holland Day, who was experimenting with photography as
art and in whose studies Gibran was photographed in various postures,
some in the nude. Was sent back to Lebanon, where he joined al-Hikma
high school in Beirut. The program of study laid special stress on
Arabic and French language and literature.
1901
Returned to Boston.
1902
Came back to the Lebanon as an interpreter to an
American family touring Europe and the eastern Mediterranean countries.
Hurried back to Boston upon hearing of the death of his youngest sister,
Sultana of tuberculosis.
1903
Struck by two losses: the death of his half-brother
Butros from tuberculosis and
that of his mother from cancer.
1904
Held in spring a picture exhibition at Fred Holland
Day's Studio.
1905
Published in New York, al-Musiqa (Music), a pamphlet
in which he eulogizes music, in particular Arabic music with its various
intonations.
1906
Published in New York 'Ara'is al-Muruj (Nymphs of the
Valley), a collection of three short stories, expressive of his
anti-feudal and anti-clerical convictions.
1908
Published in New York, al-Arwah al-Mutamclrrida
(Spirits Rebellious), a collection of four short stories much in the
spirit of 'Ara is al-Muruj. Left for Paris to study art through the
generosity of Mary Haskell .
1910
Met in Paris Ameen Rihani who was on his way to New York. The two
visited London together for a few weeks to orient themselves with the
art life in the city; they then departed, Gibran to Paris and Rihani to
America. Returned to Boston after having spent in Paris two years and
four months.
1911
Started to spend long intervals in New York City, sometimes staying with
the Rihanis, trying to get introduced to the art and life of the big
city and to draw distinguished personalities for income. He completed
the illustrations and cover picture for Rihani's Book of Khalid. Rented
for $20 in New York a small studio at 51 West 10th Street in a building
said to be the first in America to be built exclusively for the use of
painters and sculptors.
1912
Became a resident of New York City. Published in New York, al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira
- Broken Wings), a novelette, dedicated to Mary Haskell. His father died
in Lebanon.
1913
Moved to a larger studio, Room 40, in the same building, double the size
of the first, with more windows and light.
1914
Published in New York Dam a wa Ibtisaima (a Tear and a Smile), a
collection of poetic prose pieces verging on the aphoristic . Held an
exhibition at the Montross Galleries on December 14.
1916
Met for the first time, in the offices of al-Funun. Mikhail Naimy, his
life long friend and biographer, who had newly arrived that Autumn from
the State of Washington, to join the young Arabic literary movement in
New York.
1918
Published in New York, The Madman, his first work in English, a
collection of parables.
1919
Published in New York, Twenty Drawings, a selected collection of his
drawings with an introduction by Alice Raphael. Published in New York,
al-Mawakib (The Processions), a long Arabic poem in the form of a
dialogue between two voices, one that of a spiritually liberated man and
the other of a man in bondage.
1920
Published in Cairo, al-'AuasiJ (The Tempests), a collection of poetico-fictional
pieces and essays characterized by revolt against man the self-enslaved
in the name of man the self- emancipated. Published in New York his
second English work The Forerunner, another collection of parables and
sayings. Founded with other Syrian co-writers and poets in New York a
literary society al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya (The Pen So-ciety), consisting
of Gubran as president, Naimy assecretary, W. Katsiflis as treasurer,
and N. 'Arlda, 1. Abu Madl, A.h. Haddad, R. Ayyub, and N. Haddad as
members.
1923
Published in Cairo, al-Bada'i' waal-Tara'if (The New and the Marvellous)
a number of narratives and essays in the style of al-'AuasiJ; collected
and named by a publisher in Egypt with the blessing of Gibran. Published
in New York his chef-d'ceuvre The Prophet. Began to show real signs of
ill-health.
1926
Published in New York, Sand and Foam, a collection of parables and
aphorisms.
1928
Published in New York, Jesus, The Son of Man, an attempt at portraying
Jesusthrough a synthesis of different views on Him offered by a number
of His contemporaries, making Him in essence almost a duplicate of
Almustapha.
1931
Published in New York, The Earth Gods, a long prose poem consisting of a
dialogue between three Earth-Gods on the destiny of man. Died on April
10, at St. Vincent Hospital, New York. In the autopsy he is said to have
suffered of "Cirrhosis of the liver with incipient tuberculosis in
one of the lungs." His body. after sometime in Boston, was returned
to Lebanon and laid in the chapel of Mar Sarkis, an old monastery carved
in a rock near Bsharrl. Gibran has two works that were published in New
York posthumously: The Wanderer, a collection of parables published in
1932 and The Garden of The Prophet in 1933.
This latter work, started by Gibran, was continued and concluded after
his death by another pen and should not, therefore, be taken seriously.
Al-Majmu'a al-Kamila li Mu'allafat Gubran Khalil Gubran (The Complete
Arabic Works of Kahlil Gibran), organized and introduced by Mikhail
Naimy appeared in Beirut, 1961.
His works been translated from the Arabic and published posthumously.
1947
Tears and
Laughter (Dam'a wa Ibtisama), translated by A.R. Ferris, New York.
l948 Nymphs of the Valley ('Ara'isal-Muruj), translated by H.M. Nahmad,
New York. Spirits Rebellious (al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida), translated by
H.M. Nahmad, New York.
1950
A Tear and
a Smile (Dam'a wa Ibtisama), translated by H.M. Nahmad, New York.
1958
The
Processions (al-Mawakib), translated by George Khairal-lah, New York.
1959
The
Broken Wings (al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira) translated by A.R. Ferris New
York |
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