Reiss also quotes letters in which Nussimbaum unequivocally affirms being the novel's author. In one Nussimbaum states directly that he was using Baroness Ehrenfels as a legal cover in order to circumvent the ban on his work in Nazi Germany: Nussimbaum explains that "Ali and Nino" could still be published everywhere, since "according to the law on pseudonyms, K.S. is a woman! A young Viennese baroness, who is even a member of the "Kulturkammer"!", the German Writers’ Union from which Nussimbaum had been expelled.