The Prophet: A 100th Anniversary Edition

It has now been a century since Kahlil Gibran first brought The Prophet to the world. It sold out its first run of 1300 copies within weeks and went on to sell millions of copies in more than 100 languages. It is not a book of analytic philosophy and it is not a simple self-help book. It is a work of offered wisdom that flies to the heavens on the wings of its imaginative prose and lands again on the solid ground right next to the reader where it is most needed.

All readers should make the lessons of the prophet their own and find in his words the keys that might open doors that otherwise would be shut to them. We don’t intend any particular lessons to be found in these pages and don’t mean to endorse any specific lessons that may be found. We do intend our readers to engage with the text, search for keys that speak to them, and collect what wisdom they find.

—Gary L. Gregg II, Director
The McConnell Center, University of Louisville

About the Author

Kahlil Gibran (January 1883–April 1931)
Kahlil Gibran was born in Lebanon in 1883 and immigrated with his family to America in 1895. In his early education in Boston, teachers began to recognize his artistic and creative talent. At age 15, Gibran’s family sent him back to his native country to go to school at Collège de la Sagesse. Due to his youngest sister’s death in 1902, he returned to the states and was soon to face the deaths of his half-brother and mother, as well. Living off the income of his remaining sister’s dressmaker job, he stayed in Boston. In 1904, Gibran’s professional career began with a studio exhibition of his drawings. In 1905, Gibran’s first book, written in Arabic, was published in New York City. He would then go on to study art in Paris. By the time of his death, he had published numerous books in both English and Arabic. His notable works include The Madman, The Broken Wings, and The Prophet, which was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran’s best-known work and, over the last 100 years, it has been translated into more than 100 languages. It entered the Public Domain in the United States of America on January 1, 2019.

The editorial work for this 100th Anniversary Edition of The Prophet, published by The McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, was done by Gary L. Gregg II and Camryn Lee McPherson.