Kahlil Gibran

Bio

Khalil Gibran grew up poor in a Lebanese village, where his father was jailed for embezzlement. He moved with his mother to Boston, where a photographer and publisher championed his art. Gibran went back to Lebanon at fifteen to study Arabic literature, as his family wished.

He met Mary Haskell, a Boston headmistress who paid for his art studies in Paris. Gibran wrote in both Arabic and English, and Haskell edited all his English work.

He became, in one scholar's view, the most important influence on Arabic poetry of his era. Gibran left all his future royalties to that same village, where his body was brought home.