Tony Award for Best Author

The Tony Award for Best Author is a now retired category once presented to playwrights, authors and librettists of theatrical plays and musicals. Only eight awards were presented from 1947 to 1965, and is often grouped with the category Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.

Best Author of a Play

1940s

• 1947: Arthur Miller – All My Sons
  • No nominees

• 1948: Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan – Mister Roberts
  • No nominees

• 1949: Arthur Miller – Death of a Salesman
  • No nominees

1960s

• 1965: Neil Simon – The Odd Couple
  • Edward Albee – Tiny Alice
  • Frank D. Gilroy – The Subject Was Roses
  • Murray Schisgal – Luv

Best Author of a Musical

1940s

• 1949: Samuel and Bella Spewack - Kiss Me, Kate
  • No nominees

1960s

• 1962: Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert – How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
  • Michael Stewart and Helen Deutsch – Carnival

• 1963: Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
  • Lionel Bart – Oliver!
  • Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley – Stop the World - I Want to Get Off
  • Neil Simon – Little Me

• 1964: Michael Stewart – Hello, Dolly!
  • Noël Coward and Harry Kurnitz – The Girl Who Came to Supper
  • Joe Masteroff – She Loves Me
  • Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray – High Spirits

• 1965: Joseph Stein – Fiddler on the Roof
  • No nominees