The National Printing Office of Cuba was one of the first institutions created by the Revolution to make the best works of world culture available to all the people, just three months after the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959.
The revolutionary government, through Law 187 promulgated on March 31, 1959, founded the National Printing Office of Cuba and appointed the prestigious intellectual Alejo Carpentier, a veteran of the struggles, to head it. He led the institution during its early years and promoted the mass publication of books.
The first book printed was one of the masterpieces of Hispanic literature: Miguel de Cervantes's *Don Quixote*, divided into four volumes and illustrated by Gustave Doré and Pablo Picasso. This work inaugurated the People's Library collection, dedicated to the classics of world literature.
After *Don Quixote*, anthologies of poems by Rubén Darío, the leading figure of literary modernism in the Spanish language, were printed; César Vallejo, one of the greatest innovators of 20th-century world poetry and the foremost exponent of Peruvian literature; the Chilean Pablo Neruda; and the National Poet Nicolás Guillén.
In those early years, the three volumes of the Anthology of Cuban Poetry, edited by Lezama Lima, were also published, along with the novels Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos, considered the most important Venezuelan novelist of the 20th century; In Cold Blood by the American novelist Truman Capote; and Swann's Way by the French novelist and critic Marcel Proust.
Likewise, the work of the National Printing Office was crucial in the preparation and publication of all the study materials, such as the primers and manuals used in the 1961 National Literacy Campaign, which opened the doors of knowledge to almost a million illiterate Cubans. In 1962, the National Printing Office of Cuba became the National Publishing House, and Carpentier remained at its helm for four years.
In 1965, Revolutionary Editions was launched as a special project in response to the extraordinary demand for textbooks and the restrictions imposed on their publication by the United States embargo and international agreements on intellectual property.
In 1967, the Cuban Book Institute (ICL) was created as part of the Ministry of Culture, establishing a comprehensive system of national and provincial publishing houses—a creative, productive, and commercial system that, since the triumph of the Revolution, has sold millions of copies of more than 70,000 titles by Cuban and foreign writers, giving voice to writers from the provinces and encompassing diverse literary genres.
The Cuban Book Institute (ICL) manages fifteen Book Centers, located in each of the country's territories. Through these centers, it operates a Literary Promotion Center, a small publishing house in each province, and bookstores in every municipality.
In 1981, March 31st was declared Cuban Book Day in honor of the founding of the National Printing Press of Cuba in 1959. Every year, except during the pandemic, the International Book Fairs are held at the colonial La Cabaña Fortress, with parallel events in the provincial capitals.
The Fair features book presentations by authors, sales of numerous titles, colloquiums, discussions, and conferences that attract large audiences. It is an event that offers the opportunity to interact with Cuban and international intellectuals, and the National Literature Awards are presented at the Fair.