The implied author is a concept of literary criticism developed in the 20th century. Distinct from the author and the narrator, the term refers to the 'authorial character' that a reader infers from a text based on the way a literary work is written. In other words, the implied author is a construct, the image of the writer produced by a reader as called forth from the text. The implied author may or may not coincide with the author's expressed intentions or known personality traits. The implied author is a concept of literary criticism developed in the 20th century. Distinct from the author and the narrator, the term refers to the 'authorial character' that a reader infers from a text based on the way a literary work is written. In other words, the implied author is a construct, the image of the writer produced by a reader as called forth from the text. The implied author may or may not coincide with the author's expressed intentions or known personality traits.