The Mystery of T. M. Junge

T. M. Junge (1860 -1930?) is known only from his rare, never-reprinted, 'proto-fantasy' novel, "Under the Mountain".  Though born in Germany, he spent some time working in England before finally taking up residence in the United States. Much of what is known personally about him is only from several mentions in rather dry reviews in ancient newspapers or casual references from officianados of the genre who appreciated his one and only book. There is rumored to be some material on him in the late Lin Carter's chaotic, legally tied-up files. 

So unobtainable is the book that most of what is known about it are quotations in other works. The only two I have been able to track down are these:

“What we mainly deal with are the Three Dees." 

Giles furrowed his brows. 

"What are they?" 

"Well, there are Devils, which are the worst and most dangerous. That's fallen angels. Unbodied intelligences with a malevolent will; they hate everything but especially humans, seemingly, and have the cunning and malice to go at it hard. Then there's Daemons, which are what you might call spiritual animals, as it were. They arise out of nature and are attached to places and things. Mankind was supposed to be in charge of regulating them in the first place, but lost that ability a while ago." 

The little man gave Giles a significant look. 

"They're wild and kind of stupid, and every now and then one will break out like a fox in the henhouse and have to be whacked back into place. Then there's Dybbuks, which are the weakest but most common. That's dead people, or bits of them, that hang around after they should've passed on. You get your hauntings and obsessions and so on. Getting rid of Devils is rare and terrifying, like hunting tigers; dealing with Dybbuks is like cockroaches, rather personal and disgusting." 

--from Under the Mountain, by T. M. Junge.

Giles watched, mystified, as the other called for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the following note: 'Flee for your life. All is known, your lies have been revealed, and the jig is up.  Signed, Your Friend.' He folded it, addressed it, and handed it to a potboy to be delivered.

"What good will that do?" Giles asked.

"It's just to put the bats around his ears," the Squire answered calmly. He called for another jug of ale. "Half the time when I've sent that letter, the problem clears itself up right away. Almost everybody has something they don't want dragged out into daylight."

 --T. M. Junge, Under the Mountain

The only other instance of his voice I've been able to discover is not from the novel, but from a letter he sent H. P. Lovecraft in the early Twenties, which the Weird Tales writer quoted to Robert E. Howard:

 "Imagine you are living in a universe on a world where every human being is an alternate version of yourself, expressed in each race and in both sexes. In every different way, they are living your life, under every circumstance, in every time, in every place. Would you not forgive their blunders, understand their failures, tolerate their follies, grant their little joys, and at the same time try to improve their characters and lives, with as much understanding and diligence as you try to improve your own? Imagine this, then go forth and act accordingly." --T. M. Junge

Lovecraft rather bluntly states, "I couldn't."

The mystery of T. M. Junge continues. The rarity of "Under the Mountain" (its short printing was already hard to find in 1900; its connoissuers began thinking of themselves as a select secret club with Junge as their shibboleth) has made finding a copy to reprint impossible - so far. Several are thought to reside in great private libraries or obscure collections. The Library of Congress contains no findable copy; it is presumed stolen. There are those who believe Junge and his work to be merely an ephemeral literary in-joke, the point of which has evaporated with time. But there continue to be enough elusive clues and cryptic references to keep Fantasy buffs on the trail.