1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in history class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 1: heart radio. Hello and welcome to this day in history class, 3 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: a show that flips through the pages of history to 4 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gay Bluesier, 5 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 1: and today we're looking at how a book of Inspirational 6 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: Prose Poems by a little known author became one of 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: the best selling books of the entire twentieth century. The 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: Day was September twenty three. Three Khalil Jabron's The prophet, 9 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: a volume of romantic prose poetry, hit bookstore shelves for 10 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: the first time. It was the fourth book by the 11 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: Lebanese American author and was by far his most successful. 12 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: The first print run of twelve copies sold out in 13 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: a month and, against the odds, the prophet only rose 14 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: in popularity from there. By nineteen fifty seven, one million 15 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: copies had been sold and as of two the number 16 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: now stands at well over ten million, and that's just 17 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 1: for the American edition. The Prophet has been translated into 18 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: more than a hundred different languages, which makes it one 19 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: of the most translated books of all time. It's global 20 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:27,399 Speaker 1: success made Khalil Gibran the third best selling poet in history, 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,120 Speaker 1: just behind William Shakespeare and Lauth Sioux, and since its 22 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: original publication in ninety three, the Prophet has never gone 23 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: out of print. That's quite a pedigree for a slim 24 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: volume of poetry that most people have probably never heard of. 25 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: So let's talk a little about how it all happened. 26 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: Khalil Gibran was born in the village of Bishari in 27 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: Ottoman Syria, now known as Lebanon, on January six eighteen 28 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: eighty three. He emigrated to Boston as a child, but 29 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: returned to his homeland at the age of fifteen to 30 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: study Arabic literature at the Collage Day Sagess. After graduating 31 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: with honors, he traveled to Paris, where he trained as 32 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 1: a painter at Le Academy Julian. An accomplished visual artist, 33 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: Jabran went on to produce more than seven hundred original 34 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: works in his lifetime, including portraits of other writers and 35 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 1: artists such as Yates, young and Rodan. In nineteen o four, 36 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,440 Speaker 1: when he was twenty one years old, Gabron exhibited some 37 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: of his own drawings for the first time at a 38 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: studio in Boston. There he was introduced to a woman 39 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: named Mary Haskell, the headmistress of a local private school 40 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: for girls. She was known for her progressive views and 41 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: for her patronage of up and coming artists. She took 42 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: an interest in Gabron's art, paying for his further education 43 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,800 Speaker 1: in Paris and helping to arrange more showings of his 44 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: work in Boston. That same year, Khalil Gabran also found 45 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: six sessed with writing when one of his prose poems 46 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: was published in Arabic by the ex Patriot Arab press 47 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: newspaper in New York. Jabran continued to create art and 48 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: publish Arabic poetry for the next fourteen years. Along the way, 49 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: he grew closer with Mary Haskell, who became not only 50 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 1: his patron but his confidante and eventually his lover. Jabran 51 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,640 Speaker 1: also began to write in English during this period, with 52 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: Haskell serving as his editor. It was with her guidance 53 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: and networking connections that Jabran was able to submit his 54 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: first English collection of poems to New York publisher Alfred 55 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: a knop. That book, nine eighteen's the madman, featured proverbs 56 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: and parables written in a style that blended poetry and prose, 57 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: unusual for Arabic literature. It sold well enough for such 58 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: a collection, especially one by an unestablished author. CANNOP agreed 59 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: to publish two more of Gabron's collections, one in nineteen 60 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: nine teen and one in ninety. Those two did decent business, 61 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: so canop expressed interest in publishing a fourth collection. It 62 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: was three years before Jabron handed in his next book, 63 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: the Prophet, but for CANAP and readers it was well 64 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: worth the weight. Although it consists of just twenty six 65 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: prose poems and illustrations, the Prophet covers a lot of terrain, 66 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: speaking on weighty topics such as beauty, love, marriage, parenting, friendship, 67 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: reason and passion, work and death, just to name a few. 68 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: These central aspects of human life are presented through the 69 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: use of a simple narrative frame. In a fictional foreign city, 70 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: an exiled prophet named Al Mustafa Prepares to board a 71 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 1: ship that will finally take him home after twelve long years. 72 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,039 Speaker 1: As the ship approaches, the townspeople lament his imminent departure. 73 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 1: They implore him to soften the blow by imparting words 74 00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:03,480 Speaker 1: of wisdom about great mysteries of life. The prophet obliges. 75 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: On the subject of marriage, he tells them. Quote. Give 76 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: your hearts, but not into each other's keeping, for only 77 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: the hand of life can contain your hearts and stand together, 78 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: yet not too near together, for the pillars of the 79 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the Cypress 80 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: grow not in each other's shadow. On the topic of children, 81 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,599 Speaker 1: the Prophet says you may give them your love, but 82 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,719 Speaker 1: not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You 83 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: may house their bodies, but not their souls, for their 84 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: souls dwell in the House of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, 85 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:42,360 Speaker 1: not even in your dreams. And on pain, he says 86 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:46,000 Speaker 1: your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses 87 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must 88 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: break that its heart may stand in the sun, so 89 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: must you know pain. Alfred cannop did not have high 90 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:01,479 Speaker 1: expectations for debron's latest book of Roman Anti Humanist Poetry. 91 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,839 Speaker 1: His work had never been that strong as seller, and 92 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: this was his fourth such collection. There was little to 93 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: suggest it would perform any better or worse than his 94 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: previous books. So it came as quite the shock when 95 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: the first printing sold out in a matter of weeks. 96 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:22,160 Speaker 1: The second printing, though considerably larger disappeared almost as quickly, 97 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:25,039 Speaker 1: and so did the next one and the one after that. 98 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,679 Speaker 1: CANOP had only advertised the book one time, yet sales 99 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:32,599 Speaker 1: continued to grow from one year to the next thanks 100 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: to word of mouth. By the nineteen sixties, as many 101 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: as five thousand copies of the profit were sold in 102 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: the US each week. CANOP never came to grips with 103 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,279 Speaker 1: the book's success. He did have a colorful theory about 104 00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: its readers, though. He said, quote, it must be a cult, 105 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: but I have never met any of its members. I 106 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: haven't met five people who have read Jabron. There was 107 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: no cult, but the books spiritual component was a major 108 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: part of its appeal. The prophet debuted and then picked 109 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: up steam during a time when many Americans were turning 110 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:13,559 Speaker 1: away from religious fundamentalism. The prophet offered them a form 111 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: of spiritual counsel that wasn't tied to any specific religion 112 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 1: or deity, but that still sounded like a religious text. 113 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: You probably noticed in the excerpts I read that Jabron 114 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: composed his poems in a rather archaic style for the 115 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: Nineteen Twenties. Phrases like for only the hand of life, 116 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,320 Speaker 1: and so must you know pain bring to mind popular 117 00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 1: translations of the Christian Bible, which makes the writing sound 118 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: older than it really is. The poems are also presented 119 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: as the teachings of a Wise Holy Prophet and, as 120 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: a result, they read a lot like sermons. Lastly, the 121 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: concise aphoristic style of the writing makes it highly quotable, 122 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: just like a religious verse or proverb. Those features provided 123 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: a sense of familiarity to American readers, making it feel 124 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: like less of a leap to explore spirituality outside of 125 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: organized religion. Because of that ease of entry, the prophet 126 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: continue to resonate with readers for generations, from the Great 127 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,480 Speaker 1: Depression to World War Two and then into the nineteen sixties, 128 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: when it was embraced as the Bible of the counterculture. 129 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 1: Khalil Jabran never got to see the full scope of 130 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:30,120 Speaker 1: the effect he had on American society. He was forty 131 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: years old when the Prophet was released and he died 132 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,320 Speaker 1: just eight years later from cirrhosis of the liver. He 133 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: published nine books in Arabic and eight in English during 134 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: his lifetime. His Arabic works were largely met with critical 135 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,679 Speaker 1: acclaim and they continue to be admired and taught as 136 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: some of the greatest works of twentieth century Arabic Literature. 137 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,600 Speaker 1: His English works were also widely embraced by readers, but 138 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,079 Speaker 1: most critics in the West never saw the appeal. They 139 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,960 Speaker 1: dismissed the prophet as sentiment mental and simplistic, a bunch 140 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:07,040 Speaker 1: of hokey mysticism and reheated platitudes. That opinion took root 141 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: in American academia and, as a result, the Prophet has 142 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:15,960 Speaker 1: never been widely viewed as, quote unquote, serious literature. Nevertheless, 143 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: millions of people read the book anyway, and most of 144 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,440 Speaker 1: them had a much different view of it than critics. 145 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: The distinctive beauty of its language and the sincere conviction 146 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,559 Speaker 1: of its ideas struck a chord with an unusually broad audience. 147 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: What they read gave them comfort and stuck with them. 148 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: They applied its ideas to their own lives and they 149 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: passed those ideas onto friends and loved ones. Some readers 150 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: even started using passages from the prophet to mark key 151 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 1: events in their lives like weddings, funerals and graduations. Not 152 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:53,760 Speaker 1: many other twentieth century poets achieved that level of UBIQUITY. So, 153 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,560 Speaker 1: even though it does sound a little culty when you 154 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: spell it all out. The Prophet seems to have done 155 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:02,840 Speaker 1: some real good for a lot of people. Jabron once 156 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: said the entire point of the book was to tell readers, quote, 157 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: you are far, far greater than you know and all 158 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:14,120 Speaker 1: is well. That may be too simplistic a message for some, 159 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: but for people struggling to find a path through difficult times, 160 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: the Prophet was and still is a welcome the ray 161 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 1: of hope. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know 162 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 163 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode, consider following us on twitter, 164 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: facebook and Instagram at t d I hc show, and 165 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,720 Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to 166 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:45,440 Speaker 1: send them my way at this day, at I heart 167 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,079 Speaker 1: media Dot Com. Thanks, as always, the channel or mays, 168 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:51,760 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 169 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:54,840 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again soon for another day 170 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 1: in history class.