Khalil Gibran – Twenty Drawings – 1919 First Edition

A first edition, first printing of Khalil Gibran’s only book of drawings, published in 1919.

Comprises twenty original B&W illustrations including the frontispiece  portrait of the author’s mother. All have facing tissue guards and descriptive text. Introduction by Alice Raphael.

Published by Knopf in New York in 1919, this was the author’s second book in the English language after The Madman. Gibran’s earlier works had been published in Arabic back in Lebanon.

The author studied art in Paris from 1908-10, developing his skills with pencil portraits and sketches, before returning to the US.

Hardback. Bound in publisher’s original brown cloth with tan paper boards. In good condition. Area of damp staining to top of front board. A few small areas of loss to paper on front and rear board. Some chips and loss to top of spine, but binding still tight and square. Small bookseller’s stamp to front pastedown. Previous owner’s pencil inscription. Contents otherwise clean and bright.