The model of the first Bulgarian enterprise for publishing and distribution of books and printed materials was the “Associate Bookbindery”, founded in 1857 by the eminent Revival-period publisher Hristo G. Danov, in partnership with his fellow-citizens, the teacher Yacho Trouvchev and the book-binder Nyagul Boyadzhijski.
Having been a teacher for nine years consolidated Hristo G. Danov’s belief that a new type of education and broad national-scale enlightenment could be achieved only by appropriate books and schoolbooks, as well as by popularising literacy at large. In the year 1855, Hristo G. Danov used all his money saved from teaching to print in Belgrade the small calendar-book called “Staroplaninche” (meaning the “Balkan Mountain Boy”) dedicated to the 1856 leap year. That marks the beginning of the organized book publishing in Bulgaria.
Ever since 1962, the publishing association worked under the name “Hristo G. Danov and Co. Book-Publishing House”, having branches in the towns of Russe and Veles (1867), Sofia and Lom (1880). The publishing company mainly printed schoolbooks and training aids, as well as the very first wall-hanging maps. Although being a democrat-enlightener in his beliefs, Hristo G. Danov never denied the revolutionary fighting and he was well disposed to the revolutionary-liberating movement. After the Liberation of Bulgaria, with the support of the Russian Knjaz Cherkassky, Hristo G. Danov managed to bring his old dream to life – he transferred his own printing-house from Vienna and re-opened it in Plovdiv.
An act of high importance to us is the publishing of the most important newspaper in Bulgaria in the post-Liberation period by Hristo G. Danov – the “Maritsa” Newspaper. Only three weeks after the signing of the Berlin Treaty, on July 25th, 1878, the first issue of the newspaper was released. Its main goal was “to defend the wholeness of the Bulgarian people, so cruelly torn away by foreign powers.”
Hristo G. Danov died on December 11th, 1911 in Plovdiv, and was buried by his sons in the “Holy Virgin” Cathedral Church. His great deeds, dedicated to the welfare of his countrymen, had been carried on by his sons. Until the Nationalization by the Communist government in 1947, the “Hristo G. Danov Publishing House” published more than 2,400 different titles altogether. On January 1st, 1960, by a decision of the Cabinet Council, the “Hristo G. Danov Publishing House” was re-established, after a 13-year break, and it is still successfully functioning today.