“Saint Katy the Virgin” was originally published in a limited edition of only 199 copies by The Golden Eagle Press for Pascal Covici's Covici-Friede publishing firm in 1936 and was ironically offered as a Christmas gift for friends of the publisher; later the tale was included as one of the stories in

in 1938, although it appears very out-of-place in the collection because its fable / fantasy-like structure is so different from the rest of the short fiction included there. Many Catholic believers of the time condemned the chronicle as blasphemy while still other readers appreciated and savored the coarse humor that was often invoked as a reason for the censorship of other Steinbeck works.

The story features Steinbeck's witty repartee and tongue-in-cheek humor while

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Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "Saint Katy the Virgin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2288, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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