AUTHOR

AUTHOR, AUTOR, properly denotes one who created or produced any thing; and is applied by way of eminence to the first cause, viz. God—Thus we say the author of nature, etc. See CAUSE, GOD, NATURE, etc.

The word is Latin, formed of the Greek, αὐτός, ipse.

The term author is sometimes also used in the same sense with inventor.—Polydore Virgil has written eight books of the authors or inventors of things, etc. See INVENTION. Pythagoras is held the author of the dogma of Metempsychosis. See METEMPSYCHOSIS, etc.



AUTHOR, in matters of literature, is a person who has written or composed some book, or writing. See BOOK, WRITING, etc. Thus we say the sacred authors; anonymous authors, etc.—The Latin authors pillaged the Greeks, etc. See ANONYMOUS, etc.

An original author is he who first treated of any point or subject; who did not follow any other person, imitate any model either in the matter or the manner of what he has written. See ORIGINAL.

AUTHOR