R. Yehoshua Lovaine's identity is something of a mystery. The translator [of his stories in Imperial Messages], Tsvi Blanchard, received the original parables without any specific information about the history of the author. Mr. Blanchard hazards the guess that R. Yehoshua Lovaine is either a nineteenth-century Kabbalist who wrote in Yiddish or else a living Jewish writer who wishes to keep his identity hidden.