Kahlil Gibran with Book

Day grew up in a well-to-do Boston family with a strong sense of social responsibility and a special concern for the city’s immigrant population. Interested in the education of underprivileged youth throughout his life, Day funded and guided the education of the young Lebanese immigrant Kahlil Gibran, encouraging him to study William Blake’s drawings and to read Walt Whitman and Maurice Maeterlinck. Gibran, depicted here at age fourteen, developed into one of the twentieth century’s most widely read poets, best known for his 1923 book The Prophet.