Day was introduced to Kahlil Gibran when the future author was a youth. Estelle Jussim points out in Slave To Beauty that Day, as a patron of Boston libraries for the poor, was often presented with youths needing attention. Day received a letter from a social worker in November, 1896 asking if he might have a friend who would be interested in Gibran: He is not connected with any society, so any one befriending the little chap would be entirely free to do with him what would seem in their judgment wise. (op. cit., p. 114) Day went on to not only employ Gibran as a model but introduced him to much of the symbolist literature and art that would later influence The Prophet.