GREAT LIVES : Khalil Gibran

               Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran has always been controversial as an artist and writer- Many feel that he was somewhat of a phony, and others consider him to be a sensitive artist almost akin to Blake- He was a Christian from a mountain village in north Lebanon, and the air of the middle-east pervades his work- He, his mother, and brother and sisters came to America in 1895, when he was 12 years old- They were probably trying to escape a world the father dominated as a crude, loud-mouthed, drunk- Gibran was noticed early in Boston, and taken up by the photographer and publisher F. Holland Day- The photographer introduced Gibran to the Romantic poets and writers like Edward Carpenter and Nietzsche- Gibran went back to Syria for more education in 1897 and stayed for 3 years- When he came back he started to write and draw- 

Gibran seems to have been very taken with himself, and exaggerated his past and created stories about his father and his past that were straight out lies- He wanted people to think well of him, and he was charming enough to arouse interest- There was a strange dichotomy in this man- The image that he presented to the world was far from real- It was a creation of his and he lived it- But Gibran was a deep enough man that this false front to the world slowly caught up with him- He struggled with the contradictions that he had built up over a lifetime- He would often indicate that he was not real, that he wanted to be truer to himself- 

So how could a man so divided in such a crucial way, write and paint and draw successfully? Even though there is much to criticize in his writing, the reader can feel that his observations on life are valid- His strong point was the parable- They are simple and often profound- His true self seems to emerge, although not always fully, in his writings and in many of his drawings- There is a comparison to be made to Blake- They both wrote mystical tracts and illustrated their own works with often ethereal type images- “The Prophet” is well known and contains some truly memorable lines- The real inner man comes through in much of this writing- Some people smirk, when hearing talk of “The Prophet,” but they should not look down on such a work- Like much of Whitman’s poetry, it speaks to humanity, and not just to the intellectuals and scholars- 

I bought an Everyman volume of Gibran’s works about ten years ago- It is poorly edited, with no introduction, footnotes, or anything you would expect to find in the collected works of a noted writer- This tells me that the publisher felt that, given the type of reader the volume would attract, it wasn’t necessary to present more than the works themselves-

Grateful thanks to 

John Wherrity, Classic Literatures, Facebook