From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:

  author
       n 1: writes (books or stories or articles or the like)
            professionally (for pay) [syn: {writer}]
       2: someone who originates or causes or initiates something; "he
          was the generator of several complaints" [syn: {generator},
           {source}]
       v : be the author of; "She authored this play"

In hypertext systems the reader's understanding of the author can sometimes be lost in the confusion of inter-linking. The author as proper name is subsumed by an author function [foucault_author].