Word: gibran
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...Alfred A. Knopf, then 23 and a newcomer to the book-publishing business, was introduced to a Lebanese artist-poet in a Greenwich Village cafe. Knopf had never heard of Kahlil Gibran, but his young publishing firm needed authors, and during the next four years he published three Gibran books; all sold dismally. The Prophet, brought out in 1923, did slightly better...
...rather ambitious first printing of 2,000, Knopf managed to sell 1,159 copies, and with that, presumably exhausted the market for Gibran...
...Cult. What supports such phenomenal sales? Certainly no effort of Knopf's other than making the book available in three editions,-two of them illustrated by twelve Gibran sketches of idealized nudes. The firm once launched an advertising campaign years ago but hastily canceled it when the only result was to reduce sales. It has not since promoted the book in any way. Who buys The Prophet"? Knopf can only guess. "It must be a cult," he has said, "but I have never met any of its members. I haven't met five people who have read Gibran...
...sparse selection of sculpture even less can be said; such is doubly sad since sculptors once provided the Festival's most exciting works. Of the twenty-odd pieces only John Bergschneider's Lucifer and Kahlil Gibran's Torso are particularly good although Eleanor Koplow's amusing ceramic of Miami Beach will be the chief crowd-pleaser. The only notable ink drawing is one by Alexander Robert McDonald, and there are no memorable woodcuts or lithographs...
...same vein, the septuagenarian publisher described his experiences with such authors as Thomas Mann and Willa Cather. He told of a college professor who wrote about a Montana river that was "like a navel cord" and "waterways that really brought forth men and women." He talked about Kahill Gibran, who wrote The Prophet, Knopf's best-selling book, which only began to drop in sales when Knopf started advertising...