Kahlil Gibran Collective

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"East is West: A Review of 'Twenty Drawings' by Kahlil Gibran", Arts & Decoration, New York, Jan. 1920, p. 196.

"East is West: A Review of 'Twenty Drawings' by Kahlil Gibran", Arts & Decoration, New York, Jan. 1920, p. 196.

 

 

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Breath on a Window Pane [Wash Drawing], The Dial, July 1920.

Breath on a Window Pane [Wash Drawing], The Dial, July 1920.

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Carl Gad, Johan Bojer: The Man and His Works, Frontispiece Portrait of Johan Bojer by Kahlil Gibran, New York: Moffatt, Yard and Company, 1920.

Carl Gad, Johan Bojer: The Man and His Works, Frontispiece Portrait of Johan Bojer by Kahlil Gibran, New York: Moffatt, Yard and Company, 1920.

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Elsie Mitchell Rushmore, "A Bibliography for Social Workers among Foreign-Born Residents of the United States", New York City, 1920, pp. 34-35.

Elsie Mitchell Rushmore, "A Bibliography for Social Workers among Foreign-Born Residents of the United States", New York City, 1920, pp. 34-35.

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Glen Mullin, Blake and Gibran [Review: K. Gibran, Twenty Drawings, New York: Knopf, 1919], The Nation, April 10, 1920, pp. 485-486.

Glen Mullin, Blake and Gibran [Review: K. Gibran, Twenty Drawings, New York: Knopf, 1919], The Nation, April 10, 1920, pp. 485-486.

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Lagrimas e sorrisos (Kitāb Dam‘ah wa Ibtisāmah), translated into Brazilian Portuguese by José Mereb, Rio de Janeiro: Typograhia Guarany Pelotas, 1920 [owned by Mary Elizabeth Haskell].

Lagrimas e sorrisos (Kitāb Dam‘ah wa Ibtisāmah), translated into Brazilian Portuguese by José Mereb, Rio de Janeiro: Typograhia Guarany Pelotas, 1920 [owned by Mary Elizabeth Haskell].

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Letter of Kahlil Gibran to José Mereb, New York, May 16, 1920.
Letter of Kahlil Gibran to José Mereb, New York, May 16, 1920.
 
51 West Tenth Street
Dear friend and fellow countryman Mr. José Mereb, I offer you my cordial greetings.
This beautiful morning, I received your kind letter, including three copies of the book A Tear and a Smile translated into Portuguese.
Great was my joy for your noble act of conveying this moral problem from the region of ideas to the world of reality.
As God is my witness, my contentment is not the effect of a particular disorder, for recognizing that in our Arabic language, thousands of literary works are more deserving than A Tear and a Smile to be translated into another language.
However, I am glad to hear that the awakened sons of my race, after spending so many years in exile, withdrawn wholly to material causes, have begun to exhibit something of our valuable intellectual treasures before the Western people.
The grateful emotion I feel for you is a collective emotion; it is not individual; as an entity, I do not deserve any element of your noble initiative, shaped by delicate and altruistic sentimentality.
As for your decision to translate the book The Broken Wings, it is yet another proof of your spiritual energy and your love of work.
Certainly, it makes my soul very happy, the comforting news of your translation of The Broken Wings as it is more attractive to my heart than other writings of mine, because it represents the painful profile of the oriental woman, who sees herself placed between Divine love and worldly duty.
I had written most of the parts of A Tear and a Smile before I turned twenty springs; they came out pale, wrapped in new ones. The Broken Wings, however, was written many years later; although it is not what I wanted, it is, more like a mature branch than a green one.
Allow me to say another word to you concerning The Broken Wings. Here it is…
I know that the moral problems of our days do not materialize and do not have their effects, if not through money, recognizing, that my moral help is not enough. I therefore want to help this noble initiative with something material; I ask you to inscribe my name with twenty pounds sterling in the list of those who signed up for this worthy act of yours; and I am ready to send you this insignificant amount whenever you want.
The book The Tempests, my last work in Arabic, has just been published by «al-Hilāl» Printing Department in Egypt. But I still have not received the copies they were supposed to send me. As soon as they arrive, I will send you one, hoping you will find something in it that will please and satisfy you.
You told me in one of your previous letters that you had sent me your portrait; however, with great regret, I tell you that I did not receive it: nevertheless, I was happy to see it lithographed in the work A Tear and a Smile. In return, I also offer you mine and ask you to accept it as a proof of my esteem and admiration for you.
If possible, I beg you to gift me with six more copies of A Tear and a Smile, as some friends who know Portuguese here are eager to acquire the work; and, if possible, if you could also send me what is said in the press about the beautiful translation, I would be thrice grateful to you.
Please accept my cordial greetings, filled with esteemed gratitude. And may God keep you for your brother,
Ǧubrān Ḫalīl Ǧubrān
New York, May 16, 1920

 

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Letter of Kahlil Gibran to Mrs. Holt, Nov. 19, 1920.
My dear Mrs. Holt,
It is indeed a long time since we have met, but Mrs. [Julia Ellsworth] Ford and I have often spoken of you, and I have asked her many times to remember me to you.
I shall be very glad to come and dine with you on the December the third at half past seven. It is most gracious of you to ask me, and I shall be happy to see you again and to have the pleasure of meeting your friends.
Very sincerely, yours
Kahlil Gibran
Nov. 19 - 1920
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Gibran references conversations with the socialite Julia Ellsworth Ford, who was his friend.
 
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Mustaqbal al-Lughat al-'arabiat wa al-'alam al-'arabi [The Future of Arabic and the Arab World], Al-Hilal, March 1920
Mustaqbal al-Lughat al-'arabiat wa al-'alam al-'arabi [The Future of Arabic and the Arab World], Al-Hilal, March 1920, pp. 489-497.
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Siegfried Sassoon on Kahlil Gibran, Journal, 10 Feb. 1920 (manuscript)
Siegfried Sassoon on Kahlil Gibran, Journal, 10 Feb. 1920 (manuscript)
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Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886-1967), well known as a highly decorated English soldier and writer, was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His verse, that described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic spirit, greatly influenced Wilfred Owen )1893-1918(, who was the most famous poet- soldier of English literature and to whom Sassoon was mentor. 
On 28 January 1920, Sassoon arrived in New York for a lecture tour and Gibran, eager to draw him for his ”Temple of Art,“ got an appointment with him on 10 February. On that cold and snowy Tuesday, the two lunched together and Sassoon accepted to sit for a portrait. After coming back to the Seville Hotel, at 88 Madison Avenue, Sassoon wrote down in his notebook: 
”Tues. 10th - Dreary morning of thawing snow. Lunched with Kahlil Gibran, a little Syrian artist & poet; he did a drawing of me. He has done Masefield & Yeats with success, & showed me Rodin & Debussy, which looked all right. He seems a very nice creature. Nothing commercial about his point of view. (Tuesday, 10 Feb. 1920)“ 
Thanks to this unique document it is now possible to attribute an identity to a portrait hitherto left unnamed amongst others kept safe by the Gibran National Committee, Beirut, Lebanon. 
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- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives 
- Classmark: MS Add.9852/1/14 
- Title: Journal, 21 Jan. 1920-22 Apr. 1920, p. 18

 

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William Isaac Cole, Immigrant Races in Massachusetts: The Syrians, Massachusetts, Department of Education, Division of Education of Aliens, 1920.

William Isaac Cole, Immigrant Races in Massachusetts: The Syrians, Massachusetts, Department of Education, Division of Education of Aliens, 1920.

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Witter Bynner (Emmanuel Morgan), Pins for Wings, Caricatures by Ivan Opffer and William Saphier, New York: The Sunrise Turn, Inc., 1920

Witter Bynner (Emmanuel Morgan), Pins for Wings, Caricatures by Ivan Opffer and William Saphier, New York: The Sunrise Turn, Inc., 1920, p. 15.