Khalil Gibran was an artist, poet and writer. He was born in Lebanon and spent much of his productive life in the United States. As a result of his family"s poverty, he did not receive any formal schooling during his youth in Lebanon. However, priests visited him regularly and taught him about the Bible, as well as the Syriac and Arabic languages. During these early days, he began developing ideas that would later form some of his major works. In particular, he conceived of The Prophet (1923) at this time. The Madman was published in 1918.