Kahlil Gibran: Beyond Borders
Louis Werner
Jean Gibran and Kahlil G. Gibran
2017, Interlink books, 978-1-56656-085-6, $50 hb.
This is an update of the landmark 1974 work about the poet and artist widely revered by students and romantics of all ages for The Prophet, his book of epigraphic wisdom and spiritual insight. It is by the same husband-wife team responsible for the original volume. Perhaps because coauthor Kahlil G. Gibran was himself a visual artist, the focus is on Gibran’s artwork as much as his literary output. The text extends an appreciation of Gibran’s oeuvre far beyond his best-known work, with a close reading of art exhibitions, newspaper articles and poems. The reminiscences of family members and friends, access to archives worldwide and support from the Middle East-themed Interlink Books and its ongoing Gibran Project have helped the authors write an essential biography—which also answers the question: How did a Lebanese boy born with the name Jubran Khalil Jubran become known to the world as Kahlil Gibran?
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