2017, Rowman & Littlefield, 978-1-53810-427-9, $19.95 hb.
Paul-Gordon Chandler takes readers on a fascinating journey across three continents as he explores the life, works and spirituality of Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), the elusive author of The Prophet. Published in 1923, Gibran’s most famous work has been translated into 40 languages, sold more than 100 million copies and inspired millions of readers around the globe. Yet Gibran, who once explained, “My life is a life interior,” is far less known. Chandler exposes that interior life as he retraces Gibran’s footprints from his birthplace in the mountains of Bsharri, Lebanon, to the tenements of Boston where he, his mother and three siblings lived after immigrating to the US in 1895, to Paris and New York, where he emerged as an influential author, artist and poet. Full of contemporary links to Gibran (who knew that Elvis Presley could recite The Prophet by heart?), In Search of a Prophet underscores the timelessness of Gibran’s vision of a shared humanity that crosses all cultural and religious divides.