The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry essays
written in English by the Lebanese artist,
philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran.
It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred
A. Knopf.
It is Gibran's best known work.
The Prophet has been translated into over
forty different languages and has never been
out of print.
Synopsis
The prophet, Almustafa, has lived in the foreign
city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about
to board a ship which will carry him home.
He is stopped by a group of people, with whom
he discusses topics such as life and the human
condition.
The book is divided into chapters dealing
with love, marriage, children, giving, eating
and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses,
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.
Popularity
Research on sales figures is difficult to
come by, but Kahlil Gibran is a very widely
read poet in modern history, having been translated
into well over 40 languages.
The Prophet is in its 163rd printing and has
sold over 100 million copies since its original
publication in 1923.
The Prophet is consistently in the best selling
category at Amazon.
The Prophet is one of the best-selling books
of all time.
Of an ambitious first printing of 2,000 in
1923, Knopf sold 1,159 copies.
The demand for The Prophet doubled the following
year — and doubled again the year after
that.
Since then, annual sales have risen steadily:
from 12,000 in 1935 to 111,000 in 1961 to
240,000 in 1965.
The book sold its one millionth copy in 1957.
Worldwide, The Prophet sells more than 5000
copies a week.
Royalties and copyright control
The book will be in the public domain in the
United States in 2018 although it is already
in the public domain in the European Union,
Canada, Russia, South Africa, and Australia.
Gibran instructed that on his death the royalties
and copyrights to his materials be owned by
his hometown, Bsharri, Lebanon.
The Gibran National Committee, located in
Bsharri, manages the Gibran Museum.
Founded in 1935, the GNC is a non-profit corporation
holding the exclusive rights to manage the
Lebanese author Kahlil Gibran's copyright
in and to his literary and artistic works.
In 2009, the GNC granted exclusive rights
to create a film based on The Prophet to Gibran:
The Prophet, LLC, a group located in the United
States.
The Garden of The Prophet
Gibran followed The Prophet with The Garden
of The Prophet, which was published posthumously
in 1933.
The Garden of the Prophet narrates Almustafa's
discussions with nine disciples following
Almustafa's return after an intervening absence.
Adaptations
1973 – The Profit; Albran's Serial, a parody
published in 1973 by PriceSloan, California,
as written by the fictional Kehlog Albran.
It reached fourth printing in 1981.
1974 – The Prophet by Khalil Gibran: A
Musical Interpretation featuring Richard Harris.
Music composed by Arif Mardin, Atlantic Records
2002 – Electronic and new-age music composer
Gandalf and narrator Thomas Klock created
an audiobook CD with German version – Der
Prophet – layered with music.
2010 – The Propheteer; A book of political
satire reimaginging The Prophet as George
W. Bush lecturing his cronies on the White
House lawn while waiting for his chopper bound
for Texas.
ISBN 978-1-4502-6057-2
2015 – The Prophet; Salma Hayek announced
an animated feature film version of the book,
with her serving as producer and as the voice
of the character Kamila.
Each chapter will be directed by an individual
director, with The Lion King's Roger Allers
overseeing the project.
References
1973.
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran; Published by
Alfred A Knopf, Inc.; A Borzoi Book
External links
The Prophet audiobook at Archive.org
The Garden of the Prophet audiobook at Archive.org
The Prophet audiobook from Legamus
The Prophet
Project Gutenberg Australia
The Prophet in Telugu Audio Book
The Prophet eBook free ebook in pdf, ePub
and kindle format from Obooko
The Prophet at the Big Cartoon DataBase
The Prophet on WikiSummaries
