“Babar” heir Laurent de Brunhoff, creator of global media empire, passes away at 98

The author of the beloved “Babar” series, Laurent de Brunhoff, has passed away at the age of 98 at his home in Key West, Florida. He was born in Paris and moved to the United States in the 1980s. Laurent de Brunhoff took over his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant-king, increasing its global popularity and expanding it into a multi-media franchise. His father, Jean de Brunhoff, created the series but passed away from tuberculosis when Laurent was just 12. Laurent continued the series as an adult, releasing numerous titles that stayed true to his father’s gentle and understated style.

Laurent’s story contributions to the “Babar” series are often indistinguishable from his father’s, as noted by author Ann S. Haskell in a 1981 New York Times article. The story of Babar, the elephant king of Celesteville, has touched millions worldwide, with the series being adapted into a television program and animated features. The series has seen widespread success and has a diverse range of fans, from Charles de Gaulle to Maurice Sendak. However, Babar was not just a character to de Brunhoff but an embodiment of himself.

Despite its success, the series has been criticised as being racially and colonialist in nature, especially for the way Babar is educated in Paris and exercises influence over his kingdom, which is presumably based in Africa. Chilean author Ariel Dorfman has described the books as an implicit history justifying international disparities between countries with abundance and those with next to nothing. Despite these criticisms, some have defended the series, arguing it is a comedic reflection of the French colonial and domestic imagination, as stated by Adam Gopnik, a Paris-based correspondent for The New Yorker.

Babar was originally created by Laurent’s mother, Cecile de Brunhoff, who improvised a story for her children when Laurent was young. The story was immediately popular, and Laurent’s father, Jean, started to draw the characters. The first book was published in 1931 and was warmly received. After his father’s death, Laurent revived the series post-World War II, feeling strongly that the tradition of Babar should be perpetuated.

Throughout his life, Laurent de Brunhoff was married twice and had two children. His most recent wife, Phyllis Rose, co-authored many of the recent “Babar” publications, including what is expected to be the final release, “Babar’s Guide to Paris”, in 2017. Laurent did not consciously write for young people, instead noting that he wrote the books for himself, seeing Babar as a friend with whom he created stories.