Sunday, August 14, 2011

The 80th Anniversary of Babar

August 12, 2011, New York Times - By PAMELA PAUL 

This year marks the publication of an unusual number of new elephant books for children. But one literary elephant not only precedes them all but will also probably always tower over the rest: the intrepid, fair-minded, fatherly and eternally stylish Babar. Eighty years and 40-odd books after his debut, Babar continues to captivate young children.

Babar first won hearts when Cécile de Brunhoff, a pianist in Paris, told her two sons a story of a little elephant whose mother is shot by hunters and moves to Paris. The boys, Laurent and Mathieu, who were 4 and 5 years old, so loved the tale, which ends with Babar’s being crowned king, that they asked their father, Jean de Brunhoff, an artist, to illustrate it.
Mr. de Brunhoff named the baby elephant Babar and, in 1931, “The Story of Babar” was published in France. It was an instant hit, translated into many languages and sold worldwide.
Mr. de Brunhoff went on to write six more Babar books, but before he could complete the last, he died of tuberculosis in 1937, at age 37. His brother asked Mr. de Brunhoff’s elder son, Laurent, then 13, to finish coloring in the sketches for publication. Six years would pass before Laurent wrote his own Babar book, “Babar and That Rascal Arthur.”
This month marks the publication of the elephant’s newest adventure, “Babar’s Celesteville Games.” Laurent de Brunhoff, who also has a birthday this month — his 86th — was inspired by the Olympics to write this latest account of Babar’s international adventures.
For his 80th birthday, Babar is celebrating both his origins and his future. In December, Babar will be the star of an exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The exhibit will display items like plush toys, games, action figures and toys on wheels dating from the 1930s. Meanwhile, on American television, Babar will feature in a new animated television series on Disney TV starting in November. As Mr. de Brunhoff said in an interview last week, when asked what would follow Babar’s 80th birthday, “He will continue to live on.”
Mr. de Brunhoff is already at work on Babar’s next book

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