Author / artist Jean de Brunhoff, (1899 - 1937) is credited as the father of the modern picturebook.

Author / artist Jean de Brunhoff, (1899 - 1937) is credited as the father of the modern picturebook. He created the Babar character and his world, and completed seven Babar books before his untimely death. 

The Travels of Babar (Le Voyage de Babar) — where Babar & Céleste venture off on their honeymoon in that famous yellow balloon — is the second book of the series and is generally considered Jean de Brunhoff’s masterpiece. It remains one of the most popular, indeed one of the best-known and most popular picturebooks of all time the world over. First published in France in 1932, Jean de Brunhoff’s The Travels of Babar is a perennial favorite. In the U.S., Random House has kept it continuously in print for over eighty-five years.

Renowned author artist Maurice Sendak writes: “My favorite among Jean [de Brunhoff]’s books, The Travels of Babar, is full of alarming and amusing twists of fate…a tour de force of composition…no one before, and very few since, has utilized the double-spread illustration to such dazzling, dramatic effect.

"Babar is at the very heart of my conception of what turns a picture book into a work of art.… Beneath the pure fun, the originality of style, and the vivacity of imagination is a serious and touching theme: a father writing to his sons and voicing his natural concern for their welfare, for their lives … Jean’s bequest to his family, and the world, shines from the books.

"In his introduction to The Travels of Babar, author A. A. Milne, himself the creator of another icon of childhood, Winnie-the-Pooh, noted, "If you love elephants, you will love Babar and Celeste. If you have never loved elephants, you will love them now. If you who are grown-up have never been fascinated by a picture book before, then this is the one which will fascinate you.” Milne ended by saying, “I salute M. de Brunhoff. I am at his feet.”

Continue readinghttps://www.mostel.com/authorartist-jean-de-brunhoff