Laurent de Brunhoff August 30, 1925 – March 22, 2024

I was sad to read Betsy Bird's Fuse8 post where she listed all the authors and illustrators we lost in 2024. One of these was Laurent de Brunhoff the son of Jean de Brunhoff. Laurent wrote over 40 Babar books.

“The start — (the) very start of Babar — was a bed(time) story from my mother,” de Brunhoff told CNN in an interview, aired in 2003. “And my brother and I loved the story. We went to my father’s studio and told him about it. He started to make a book for us. After the first book he made another one and another one. And he just discovered himself, I think.” CNN

Created in 1931 by Laurent de Brunhoff's parents, the Babar series sold millions of copies around the world and (was) translated into over a dozen languages. ... De Brunhoff's father Jean published seven Babar books before dying from tuberculosis at an early age, with the son then deciding at age 21 to carry on the series. He would go on to create dozens of works around the character, with his last, Babar's Guide to Paris, published in 2017. Le Monde

Here is a video in French (with subtitles) where you can see Laurent de Brunhoff at work.

1 Babar's Cousin (1946)
2 Babar's Picnic (1949)
3 Babar's Visit to Bird Island (1952)
4 Babar's Fair (1954)
5 A tue-tete (1957)
6 Babar and the Professor (1957)
7 Serafina the Giraffe (1961)
8 Serafina's Lucky Find (1962)
9 Babar's Castle (1962)
10 Captain Serafina (1963)
11 Anatole and His Donkey (1963)
12 Babar's French Lessons (1963)
13 Babar Comes to America (1965)
14 Babar's Spanish Lessons (1965)
15 Bonhomme (1965)
16 Babar Learns to Cook (1967)
17 Babar Loses His Crown (1967)
18 Babar's Games (1968)
19 Babar's Moon Trip (1968)
20 Babar's Trunk (1969)
21 Babar's Birthday Surprise (1970)
22 Gregory and the Lady Turtle in the Valley of the Music Trees (1971)
23 Babar's Other Trunk (1971)
24 Babar Visits Another Planet (1972)
25 Meet Babar And His Family (1973)
26 Babar's Bookmobile (1974)
27 Bonhomme and the Huge Beast (1974)
28 Babar and the Wully-wully (1970)
29 Babar Saves the Day (1976)
30 Babar's Mystery (1978)
31 The One Pig with Horns (1979)
32 Babar the Magician (1980)
33 Babar's Little Library (1980)
34 Babar's A. B. C (1974)
35 Babar's Book of Colour (1984)
36 Babar's Counting Book (1986)
37 Babar and the Ghost (1981)
38 Babar's Little Circus Star (1988)
39 Babar's World Tour (2005)