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''The Book of Khalid'' (1911) is a novel by Arab-American writer Ameen Rihani. Composed during a sojourn in the mountains of Lebanon, it is considered to be the first novel by an Arab-American writer in English. His contemporary, Khalil Gibran, illustrated the work, and the story is often seen as an influence on Gibran's own well-known book ''The Prophet''.〔Ameen Albert Rihani, "The Book of Khalid and The Prophet. Similar Universal Concerns with Different Perspectives", Presented at "The Gibran International Conference", University of Maryland, December 9–12.〕 ==Background== In his twenties around the turn of the century, Rihani was actively involved in the cultural scene of New York City, and he helped establish some of the earliest Arab-American literary societies. He published a collection of select quatrains of the poet Abul-'Ala into English in 1903 and wrote various essays and poetry in Arabic. In 1905, however, he returned to Lebanon and lived for a number of years in "mountain solitude.〔Ameen Rihani Organization Biography, accessed April 8, 2010, http://www.ameenrihani.org/index.php?page=biography〕" Yet he was not completely isolated and during this stay he lectured at local universities and released a number of essays, plays, and poems in Arabic. In 1910, he published Ar-Rihaniyat, a collection of essays that was positively received in the region and gave Rihani a strong reputation as a leading Arab intellectual. During this period, he also worked on ''The Book of Khalid'', which, according to its final page, was finished at his home in Freike on January 12, 1910. The caption reads: IN . FREIKE . WHICH . IS . IN . MOUNT . LEBANON SYRIA . ON . THE . TWELFTH . DAY . OF JANUARY . 1910 . ANNO . CHRISTI . AND . THE FIRST . DAY . OF . MUHARRAM . 1328 . HEGIRAH THIS . BOOK . OF . KHALID . WAS . FINISHED In 1911, Rihani returned to New York and sent the manuscript to publishers. When Dodd Mead and Co. received the text, it reportedly consumed their offices more than another other manuscript received at the time. In an era when the increasingly diverse nature of immigration to the United States was a popular topic, the book was marketed as an evaluation of U.S. institutions by an immigrant that would appeal to "clever readers."〔The Atlantic Monthly Advertiser, vol. 18, December 1911, p. 18, retrieved via () on April 8, 2010.〕 Although the novel was not an extraordinary success in terms of sales, it received highly affirming reviews in journals like The Bookman and The Papyrus. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Book of Khalid」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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