work in Nazi Germany. He cites a July 8, 1937, internal note from an Italian police service showing that the service believed Nussimbaum/Bey had "tried to smuggle" his works into Germany but that "the trick was, however, discovered." "Though this does not prove," concluded Reiss, "that Essad [Bey, Lev Nussimbaum's adopted name] was concealing his identity behind Kurban Said, it shows that he had cause to." Reiss further quotes Nussimbaum's correspondence with Baron Omar-Rolf Ehrenfels in 1938 to show that Nussimbaum received royalty payments for Kurban Said publications via Baroness Ehrenfels, whom he referred to as "Mrs. Kurban Said." (Leela Ehrenfels cites a September 14, 1938, letter from "Essad Bey" to Baroness Ehrenfels, written in Positano, Italy, in which he again refers to her as "Mrs. Kurban Said" and congratulates her on something unmentioned – Leela Ehrenfels interprets this as a reference to The Girl From the Golden Horn.) 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. In this same letter Nussimbaum recommended to his addressee that "she buy a copy of Ali and Nino herself, bragging that it was his favorite of his own books." In another letter, Nussimbaum wrote of having had only two writing experience in which "I thought neither of the publishing company, nor of royalties, but just wrote happily away. These were the books Stalin and Ali and Nino," adding that "The heroes of the novel simply come to me demanding, ‘Give us shape’ — ‘we also possess certain characteristics that you’ve left out and we want to travel, among other things.’ " (Betty Blair has interpreted this statement as an "admission" that Nussimbaum had "gained access to the original manuscripts" already written by someone else, Yusif Vavir Chamanzaminli, and had "embellished them.") Reiss also quotes other letters in which Nussimbaum identifies himself as Kurban Said. In his final, unpublished manuscript, Der Mann der Nichts von der Liebe Verstand, Nussimbaum also refers to himself as "Ali." Thus, while Reiss