Abstract
Discusses how important it is whether a book was written by a particular author, with reference to the views of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche. Foucault argued that a name is to some extent equivalent to a description; this description can often become generalised and less individual, resulting in the "death of the author". Nietzsche remarked that as a writer becomes celebrated, he obtains an additional identity or persona as "the writer" rather than an individual, while his writing takes on a life of its own which survives him. Although a piece of writing should be judged on its own merits, Foucault claimed that the name of the author is functional because it is a means of classification ; yet as individuals, authors change and probably reject categorisation on the basis of past work. Foucault also related the author problem to the rise of a system of ownership and copyright which turned writing into more of a commodity and property. Concludes with the status of the ghostwriter; if the name of the author is so important, the concept of the ghost-writer is paradoxical.