de BRUNHOFF, Jean. Babar en Famille. Paris: Hachette [1938]. 4to, [40]pp. Gray quarter-cloth with color pictorial boards. Color pictorial endpapers; color illustrations on nearly every page. Spine and edges a bit worn, corners bumped, light scratching to covers, else an internally clean, bright copy.

First edition. The fifth book in Jean de Brunhoff’s beloved Babar series, published posthumously from black and white drawings done for the British newspaper The Daily Sketch and colored in by the then-thirteen-year-old Laurent de Brunhoff. Babar and Celeste have had triplets. The smallest, Alexander, has a knack for getting into predicaments. Between getting stuck in the treetops and being chased by a crocodile, he certainly keeps Babar on his toes, but the king readily admits, “Truly it is not easy to bring up a family, but how nice the babies are!”