The “Library of the Impossible”: Mapping of the DPDC/DNP Editorial Production

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the Vargas government’s initial experience of state editorial production (1930-1945). The focus is on the work of the Department of Propaganda and Cultural Diffusion (DPDC)/National Department of Propaganda (DNP), the first political advertising agency of the 1930s to invest in publications. The main objective is to make a detailed mapping, in the archives and libraries collections, of the set of leaflets, books and magazines edited specifically by DPDC/DNP, something not accomplished by previous researches. As a result, it was possible to identify 88 different titles, representing approximately 81% of everything that this department produced.