Laurent de Brunhoff
Birth Name:
Laurent de Brunhoff
Birth Place:
Paris, France
Profession
Writer, Actor
Fast Facts
- Was named an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur
- Trained under painter Othon Friesz at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere
- Published his first Babar book, "Babar's Cousin, That Rascal Arthur," in 1946 when he was 21 years old
- Babar was first invented in a story of a then-unnamed elephant that his mother, Cecile de Brunhoff, told to him and his brother at bedtime one night in 1931
- Began taking over the writing and illustrating of Babar's adventures after his father, the series creator, died of tuberculosis
- Quote: "At the start it was a way of getting my father alive again․ I wanted to be faithful․ I didn't want to touch the heart of the Babar books - which is a human story․․․[but] after a while it was like Babar was my own․"
- Best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series "Babar the Elephant․"