# Is "The Story of Babar (Histoire de Babar)" by Jean de Brunhoff a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Story of Babar (Histoire de Babar) by Jean de Brunhoff (Éditions du Jardin des Modes, 1931) is identified by: The first issue of the 1931 Paris folio is identified on the verso of the title page: the first issue has no elephant logo/device there, while later printings add the elephant device together with a list of the following titles in the series. The census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first issue of the 1931 Paris folio is identified on the verso of the title page: the first issue has no elephant logo/device there, while later printings add the elephant device together with a list of the following titles in the series
- Collation and format: folio (approximately 11 x 15 in / 37 x 26 cm), 47, [1] pp., the French text in de Brunhoff's hand-lettered script, colour illustrations throughout
- The binding is the publisher's pictorial paper-covered boards (orange) with a blue cloth spine and pictorial endpapers; no cataloguing consulted records a dust jacket, so identification rests on the title-page verso and the binding
- Claims that the first edition's plates are hand-laid pochoir appear in listing copy but are not supported by the ABAA cataloguing consulted, which describes the colour illustrations without specifying the process — that assertion is excluded as unconfirmed
- Histoire de Babar was the first non-fashion book issued by Éditions du Jardin des Modes, a Condé Nast subsidiary
- Publisher imprint reads Éditions du Jardin des Modes
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jean de Brunhoff |
| Publisher | Éditions du Jardin des Modes |
| Year | 1931 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The first issue of the 1931 Paris folio is identified on the verso of the title page: the first issue has no elephant logo/device there… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first issue of the 1931 Paris folio is identified on the verso of the title page: the first issue has no elephant logo/device there, while later printings add the elephant device together with a list of the following titles in the series. Collation and format: folio (approximately 11 x 15 in / 37 x 26 cm), 47, [1] pp., the French text in de Brunhoff's hand-lettered script, colour illustrations throughout. The binding is the publisher's pictorial paper-covered boards (orange) with a blue cloth spine and pictorial endpapers; no cataloguing consulted records a dust jacket, so identification rests on the title-page verso and the binding. Claims that the first edition's plates are hand-laid pochoir appear in listing copy but are not supported by the ABAA cataloguing consulted, which describes the colour illustrations without specifying the process — that assertion is excluded as unconfirmed. Histoire de Babar was the first non-fashion book issued by Éditions du Jardin des Modes, a Condé Nast subsidiary.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed. The true first is Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, Éditions du Jardin des Modes, Paris, 1931, in French. In English the first is the American edition — The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York, 1933, translated by Merle Haas, a folio of 48 pp. in quarter cloth over illustrated boards with pictorial endpapers — which precedes the first British edition, Methuen, London, 1934. Both English editions are collected. The Methuen edition is distinguished by a preface by A. A. Milne, who saw the French book at a friend's house in 1932 and persuaded Methuen to publish it; the Smith & Haas edition has no Milne preface, so the preface is itself a quick edition test.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the 1931 French first is documented. The traps are (a) later Jardin des Modes printings of the French text, betrayed by the elephant device and the list of sequels on the title-page verso; and (b) the many later reissues of the English text — any English-language Babar bearing a Random House imprint is not the 1933 Smith & Haas first, and any bearing a Methuen imprint is not the American first. Later Methuen and Random House issues are "first thus" at best.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Story of Babar (Histoire de Babar)* by Jean de Brunhoff a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-story-of-babar-histoire-de-babar
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.