NEW YORK, March 23 — French artist Laurent de Brunhoff, the author and illustrator of dozens of children’s books starring the affable elephant character "Babar” created by his father, died yesterday at the age of 98, US media reported.

De Brunhoff’s wife, Phyllis Rose, had posted on Instagram Wednesday that he had recently suffered a stroke and was in hospice care at home in the United States.

Rose told The New York Times yesterday that De Brunhoff, who was born in Paris in 1925, had died at home in Key West, Florida.

Created in 1931 by Laurent de Brunhoff’s parents, the Babar series has sold millions of copies around the world and has been translated into over a dozen languages.

The illustrated Babar series follows the exploits of the eponymous jungle-born elephant, who receives an upbringing in Paris following his mother’s death by a hunter, then travels back to found his own city. Later editions take the elephant to a variety of locations, and even into space.

De Brunhoff’s father Jean published seven Babar books before dying from tuberculosis at an early age, with the son then deciding at age 21 to carry on the series.

He would go on to create dozens of works around the character, with his last, Babar’s Guide to Paris, published in 2017.

Babar has also been adapted into several movies and TV shows. — AFP