Lothian, the Melbourne publisher of Kirmess's novel The Australian Crisis, indicated that Kirmess was a young German working in Australia in the early years of the twentieth century who returned to Germany prior to the outbreak of World War I. It has also been claimed that Kirmess was actually Frank Fox, the editor of Lone Hand, in which journal The Australian Crisis was first published. Webb and Enstice in Aliens and Savages : Fiction, Politics and Prejudice in Australia suggest that this latter theory is unlikely. However, it is quite possible that Kirmess is a pseudonym for Ambrose Pratt, as there are striking similarities between The Australian Crisis and Pratt's novel The Big Five (1911), which was also first serialised in The Lone Hand (1907-1908).
