Jean De Brunhoff (1899 – 1937)

First published in 1931 Histoire de Babar was fashioned from a bedtime story Jean's wife Cecile told to her children. A.A. Milne brought Babar to English speaking audiences in 1933, and de Brunhoff followed the success of the book with six others before his death at the age of 37 from Tuberculosis. His brother published two subsequent Babar stories that de Brunhoff had written after his death, and after World War II his son Lauren, who had colored the illustrations of his father's posthumous works, followed in his father's footsteps, adding to the series.