Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was born in Bsharri, in present-day Lebanon, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and emigrated as a child to Boston. Writing in both Arabic and English, he became one of the best-selling poets in history. His prose-poem collection The Prophet (Alfred A. Knopf, 1923) has remained in print and has been translated into more than one hundred languages. His Arabic works include Spirits Rebellious (1908) and The Broken Wings (1912). With support from patron Mary Haskell, he studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris. He died in New York at forty-eight.
