The world of children's literature is in mourning.
French author and illustrator Laurent de Brunhoff died Friday at the age of 98 in the United States, reported several American media including the New York Times.
The French author and illustrator Laurent de Brunhoff, who successfully took up the torch of the adventures of the famous elephant Babar, adored by children around the world, died at the age of 98 in Florida, according to American media #AFP pic .twitter.com/mBv06QcERq
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 23, 2024
From 1946, a few years after the death of his father Jean, Laurent de Brunhoff managed to successfully continue the adventures of Babar, the favorite elephant of children around the world, created in 1931 by his parents.
Babar's albums have sold millions of copies, particularly in the United States, and have been translated into more than ten languages.
It all started like a story.
Jean's wife, Cécile, liked to tell her two little boys, Laurent and Mathieu, about the adventures of a little elephant whose mother was killed by a hunter.
The baby elephant then flees to the city, meets a kind old lady, learns to live among men before returning to the forest to marry Céleste and become king.
In his father's footsteps
Seduced by the story, her husband, who was a painter, put it into images and made a book.
Published in 1931 by Editions du Jardin des Modes, before the collection joined Hachette Jeunesse in 1936, Babar's adventures immediately met with success.
Also read: Chessy: the saga of the Brunhoffs, the creators of Babar, told in a book
“There were very few books for children then.
My father's imagination and poetry were (new) as well as his way of drawing, neither stylized nor realistic,” explained 40 years later Laurent, a slim and elegant man, with a receding hairline and a lively eye.
He was only 12 years old when his father died in 1937, 13 when his uncle Michel took over and 21 when he took over in 1946, publishing “Babar and that rascal Arthur”.
“Continuing Babar meant prolonging my father’s life,” he said.
19 albums
Born on August 30, 1925 in Paris, Laurent had studied painting and observed his father's work on Babar before publishing 19 albums between 1946 and 2017. He will remain faithful to his father, author of seven albums, by favoring explosions colors and maintaining the large format.
“Babar and that rascal of Arthur”, “The Célesteville party”, “Babar on the soft planet” or even “Babar in Paris” (2017)… so many albums signed Laurent which marked the childhood of babies boomers and those of their children or grandchildren, all gathered around the “Song of the Mammoths”.
A true myth that is not about to disappear.
Indeed, today's children can follow the adventures of Badou, Babar's grandson, on streaming platforms, in 3D.
Laurent de Brunhoff, who also worked for school editions at Hachette and Nathan, settled in the United States and married the American author Phyllis Rose.
He donated original Babar plates to the Morgan Library in New York as well as to the Bibliothèque nationale de France.