 jean de brunhoff (december 9, 1899 &ndash; october 16, 1937) was a french writer and illustrator known for creating the babar books, the first of which appeared in 1931. he was the fourth and youngest child of maurice de brunhoff, a publisher, and his wife marguerite. he attended protestant schools, including the prestigious ecole alsacienne. brunhoff joined the army and reached the front lines when world war i was almost over. afterwards, he decided to be a professional artist and studied painting at the acadÃ©mie de la grande chaumiÃ¨re in paris. in 1924 he married cÃ©cile sabouraud, a talented pianist, and they had two sons laurent and mathieu in 1925 and 1926; a third son, thierry, was born nine years later. the babar books began as a bedtime story cÃ©cile de brunhoff (nÃ©e sabouraud) invented for their children, mathieu and laurent, when they were four and five years old, respectively. she was trying to comfort mathieu, who was sick. the boys liked the story of the little elephant who left the jungle for a city resembling paris so much that they took it to their father, a painter, and asked him to illustrate it. he turned it into a picture book, with text, which was published by a family-run publishing house, le jardin des modes.christine nelson, drawing babar: early drafts and watercolors (new york: the morgan library and museum, 2008), pp. 17-18 originally, it was planned that the book's title page would describe the story as told by jean and cÃ©cile de brunhoff. however, she had her name removed. due to the role she played in the genesis of the babar story, many sources continue to refer to her as the creator
1899_births 1937_deaths Alumni_of_the_AcadA(c)mie_de_la_Grande_ChaumiA"re Burials_at_PA"re_Lachaise_Cemetery Deaths_from_tuberculosis French_Army_soldiers French_children\'s_writers French_illustrators Infectious_disease_deaths_in_France Writers_from_Paris Writers_who_illustrated_their_own_writing