Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran

The book tries and succeeds to be fair to Kahlil without deifying or demonizing him. However, I have always felt that Mary Haskell was not treated fairly, by Kahlil nor by the critics in general. and the book falls in the same pitfall. I do not care much for a failing romance (even though I have issues with who's is to blame), but in other aspects of Mary's life, she was a victim partly of her own making but also of Kahlil's. She had invested as much, if not more, of her talent and hard work as Gibran did of his to create Gibran's English writings, but at the end, she ended up only a footnote in Gibran's history. I have always asked myself why she would waste her life for the glory of others, but found the closest answer to be her innate self-abnegation or denial and her desire to dissolve into something more worthy than her own. What a wasted talent. Just read and compare her English with Gibran's through the love letters they exchanged and judge for yourself who was really the writer of most of Gibran's English works. She deserves credit as a co-writer of his English writings including the "Prophet," but will she ever receive it?

A fairly well-written biography of Gibran. I learned much that did not know about the man. What I learned, was that he was a deeply flawed man, who was also a great artist and writer. I learned that he also died fairly young, from alcoholism. Another creative genious brought low y substance abuse. Would he have had the creativity, had he not had the alcohol problem? I don't know, but he must have thought not, or he wouldnt have begun drinking.

Each page of this book is filled with color, love, hope and happiness. It is a reminder of the importance of treating one's self and others well, and how beautiful life really is.