This year’s 11th International Book Fair, April 21 to May 4, is dedicated to Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, the Dominican Republic’s most prolific historian.

...After Marcio Antonio Mejía Ricart, Rodríguez Demorizi is the writer with the most books ever published, with more than 100 books to his name...

Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi was born on April 14, 1904 to Genoveva Demorizi and Félix Francisco Rodríguez Jimenes. He was raised in the Dominican capital where he later became an historian, essayist and lawyer. He received his law degree from the University of Santo Domingo but soon abandoned that career to dedicate his life to historic, literary and bibliographic research. After Marcio Antonio Mejía Ricart, Rodríguez Demorizi is the writer with the most books ever published, with more than 100 books to his name. He undertook an intense and unparalleled job of compiling historic and literary documents pertaining to the Dominican Republic which he published in the national press and specialized magazines such as Clío, the magazine of the Dominican Academy of History.

Over the course of two decades (1947-1965), he was a diplomat in Latin America and Europe. His public service jobs included: Director of the National Archives of the Nation on three occasions; Secretary of State for the Interior and the Police (1957); Rector of the University of Santo Domingo (1958) and Secretary of State for Education, Fine Arts and Culture (1961). He presided over the Dominican Academy of History and founded the Dominican Society of Geography. At the time of his death he was the President of the Santo Domingo Town Hall. In 1975, he won the National Prize for Literature for his book “The Gathering of Bachelors.”