As time passed, universal renown for his work and warm affection for his character grew beyond anything achieved by any poet of his time. In 1995 the Penguin Press, in celebration of its 60th anniversary in 1995, named Gibran as one of the most important authors of the 20th century and included him in their anniversary series in honor of those authors. This well-deserved act of homage indicated the growing understanding of Gibran‘s significance. Additionally, poets such as the Irish AE (George Russel) and the American Robert Hillyer recognized his unique genius and the need for a new critical methodology to evaluate it, drawing from the disparate critical traditions of East and West without being shackled by the prejudices and limitations of either. More recently, two major British poets (Kathleen Raine and Francis Warner) gave Gibran‘s work a stamp of approval and authority as a major contribution to literature written in English. Today Gibran‘s work is available in more than forty different languages, including some vernaculars within one language. This has enabled him to be appreciated in places as far apart as Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi, Manila, Nairobi, Rome, Paris, London, and New York. Gibran’s most well-known work is The Prophet. What are the factors that have made this book in particular so prominent in world culture? What meaning does it have for you personally? The secret of The Prophet’s appeal probably rests in its positive approach and its choice of words of
praise rather than criticism, raising the heart of the reader rather than putting it down. To this must be added an acknowledgement of the work‘s unique mixture of poetry and insight, humanitarianism and inspiration. The Prophet proved to be the quintessence of Gibran‘s message that purified and enshrined all he had desired to say until then.
Gibran was one of the very few who have achieved lasting eminence and fame as a writer in two completely disparate cultures. In this lay his genius. Belonging to no precise literary tradition, he was able to build bridges between East and West, evolving his own unique creed of love and unity, and thus enhancing the cause of peace and understanding in a world torn asunder by internecine disputes. The Prophet was the perfect manifestation of Gibran‘s message, and it endured because it became a book which, like the Bible, belonged to neither the East nor the West. The Prophet remains, for me, a living testimony of humanity‘s divine vision of itself and of every other individual.