R.I.P. Palle Huld, the Real-Life Tintin
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 12.14.10 | 2:56 PM ET
The Danish man widely believed to be the inspiration for Hergé‘s famous traveling boy detective died last week at 98. The Independent looks into the mystery behind the creation of Tintin:
The young Huld wrote an account of his adventures which was published in several languages including English, in which it appeared in 1929 as A Boy Scout Around The World. It is known that Hergé read Huld’s account. It was perhaps no coincidence that the character of Tintin surfaced for the first time the same year in Le Petit Vingtieme, the children’s section of a Belgian newspaper. Palle Huld was happy to encourage the notion that he was Hergé‘s inspiration for Tintin. But Hergé, who delighted in utterly baffling Tintinologists by using the phrase “Tintin c’est moi,” liked to keep the source of his world-renowned character shrouded in mystery.
(Via The Book Bench)