The Prophet.

GIBRAN, Kahlil.

Item Number: 5065

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.

First edition of the author’s masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. In near fine condition with light shelfwear, contemporary bookplate to the inner front panel. The first printing consisted of a run of 2,000, of which Knopf sold 1,159 copies. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A superior example.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death. It has been translated into well over 40 languages. By 2012, it had sold more than nine million copies in its American edition alone since its original publication in 1923.