What Makes an ‘Author’?

I read a book the other day that was a compilation of quotes and photos. The dustcover flap boasted that this was the ‘author’s’ first book.

This got me wondering, does one become an author by compiling photos by others along with quotes from others? In this case, the ‘author’ didn’t actually write anything. There was no foreword, introduction or afterword. They wrote nothing. Not one word. (Oh, I exaggerate, she dedicated the book to her dog. She wrote a sentence.)

My question is, is this person really an author? What do you have to do to be an author? And what is an author?

Over on dictionary.com, they define ‘author’ much as I do:

a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.

In the case of the book of quotes, I would argue that this lady was in fact, a compiler and not an author.

What do you think?