[Lonesome in Massachussets]

3:41.46 Putzed around for a while until some lucky guess elsewhere in the puzzle gave me the author (good clue!). Once you get the author, the puzzle is easy.

[freedom1st]

Took me about 4 min. Messed around with endings of longer words and was able to get author. Like you said, after the author, the rest of the puzzle is easy.