Canoe reports that Babar the elephant celebrated his 75th birthday with worldwide birthday events. France, the birthplace of Babar, also created a special stamp for the occasion. The Babar books were started by Jean de Brunhoff and continued by his son Laurent de Brunhoff.
Babar was first created in 1931 from the imagination of de Brunhoff's parents.
His mother used to conjure bedtime stories about an orphaned baby elephant. His father, the painter Jean de Brunhoff, then created the first book, The Story of Babar, at the urging of his children.
Laurent de Brunhoff, who inherited his father's drawing skills, took over the series in 1946 at age 21 following his father's death.
Originally, de Brunhoff wanted to be a painter but he wanted the Babar stories to stay in the family.
"I wanted to be a painter . . . but I wanted Babar to stay in the family," said the amiable Paris-born author, 81, surrounded by his books at a downtown children's shop.
"He was my friend and I wanted him to live again. I started to make drawings in the same style. I enjoyed it very much and everybody was happy to see Babar again.
It was a great decision by de Burnhoff. He published 32 Babar books himself and there are now a total of 8 million Barbar books in print worldwide in a total of 17 languages. And de Burnhoff plans to keep writing them. Even after sixty years of writing Babar stories he still has more to share about the beloved elephant and Celesteville.
Canoe 
