More Kurtz Covers

10 Books A Day: #151

All titles are by Katherine Kurtz

Camber of Culdi

Saint Camber

Camber the Heretic

The Harrowing of Gwynnedd

King Javan's Year

The Bastard Prince

Deryni Rising

Deryni Checkmate

High Deryni

The Bishop's Heir

The King's Justice

The Quest For St. Camber

King Kelson's Bride

The Deryni Archive

Deryni Magic

Lately I've been hauling containers of books out of storage and going through them, thinning out what I feel I can do without now. Three or four years of separation gives you some perspective on what you really don't need to have. I'm happy to pass along some good stuff to my family, and looking forward to selling some other stuff to Half Price Books (the proceeds of which will probably go to getting more books--but fewer, so easier to have around). Anyway I've got seven tubs of books from storage that I'm keeping, and five tubs that are going out. I figure while I've got them here I should catalog the keeps into the 10 Books A Day posts, so here goes.

Today the list is of all my Katherine Kurtz books, all paperbacks as you can see. A quick look around the web informs me that I'm at least another trilogy behind on the Deryni books. I'm not sure how enthusiastically I'll be pursuing the latest books; the series seemed to me by the time of King Kelson's Bride to have evolved into a sort of soap-opera, a variety of story telling that never needed to ever come to any real denouement or satisfactory ending. I had succumbed to a kind of serial exhaustion, and I felt a decided absence of any of the sense of wonder for which I go to Fantasy. Also, I loved the Darrell K. Sweet covers, not the new ones so much.

Book Total: 1810.

Baba Yaga, Jack And Jill, and Katherine Kurtz

When I was going to McQueeney Elementary School back in the early 70's, each classroom was furnished with generous supplies of Jack and Jill magazines. I loved to browse through them during free time, and I remember I used to really enjoy the Baba Yaga stories that would be occasionally published in them. In these tales Baba Yaga, though grumpy and a little greedy, was a far cry from the cannibalistic hag depicted in old Russian tradition. The real hero was her put-upon black cat, who was sent out on missions by the old witch and had to brave whatever challenges that entailed. I remember enjoying the illustrations as well.

A couple of years ago my sister got a lot of old magazines and books for five bucks at a local auction, and included were several old copies of Jack and Jill. To my delight, one issue (July 1964) had the story "Baba Yaga and the Peddler", illustrated in the style I remembered. I was able to finally identify the artist I had admired as Ursula Koering, and the author of at least some of the Baba Yaga stories was Katherine Kurtz! The same Katherine Kurtz (I assume) who went on to become famous for her Deryni books.

A little further research uncovered a slim little book (34 pages) of four tales published in 1976 entitled Baba Yaga Stories, by Katherine K. O'Connor. Included was "Baba Yaga and the Peddler", so it's pretty sure the K. is for Kurtz. I couldn't find much information on the book; no picture of the cover or whether there were illustrations. So I suppose if there are any Katherine Kurtz collectors out there, this would be a rarity to look out for; I don't find it mentioned on any site dedicated to Kurtz.

I'd love to find more of these old Jack and Jills with Baba Yaga.