<?php
$author = $_GET['author'];
?>

up at the top of your page, so it can get the author variable from the URL (i.e., http://www.yourblog.net/authors.php?author=ishbadiddle)

here!

I did a fully automatic version based on your idea;
take a look at http://www.advancedpowers.com/blog/authors.php?author=wizard

Using inspiration from http://www.scriptygoddess.com/archives/001072.php (great gal) i poked around a bit and came up with the following solution to automatically generating authors list and the entries by author page (authors.php)
I use 2 plugins MTCollate and MTAuthors. The MTCollate is optional i just liked it alot becuase of the added sorting etc.

Using this in any sidebars where i want to link to the authors page;

<div class="side">
<MTCollateCollect>
<MTAuthors>
<MTCollateRecord>
<MTCollateSetField name="name"><MTAuthorName></MTCollateSetField>
<MTCollateSetField name="nick"><MTAuthorNickname></MTCollateSetField>
<MTCollateSetField name="url"><MTAuthorURL></MTCollateSetField>
<MTCollateSetField name="posts"><MTAuthorEntryCount></MTCollateSetField>
</MTCollateRecord>
</MTAuthors>
</MTCollateCollect>

<MTCollateList sort="name:+">
<a href="authors.php?author=<MTCollateField name="name">">
<MTCollateField name="name"> (<MTCollateField name="posts">)
</a><br />
</MTCollateList>
</div>
</div>

and this code in authors.php since MTAuthors has the nice sideeffect of setting the MTEntries context to the current author being listed.

<MTAuthors>
<? if($author == "<MTAuthorName>") { ?>
<h2 class="date">
<strong><MTAuthorName> (<MTAuthorEntryCount> posts)</strong>
</h2>
<MTEntries>
<$MTEntryDate format="%x"$> <a href="<$MTEntryLink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a><br />
</MTEntries>
<? } ?>
</MTAuthors>

Hope it helps someone.

i am working on a group blog with some friends. trying to get it up to snuff. it's over here.

i am using the dropdown menu thingie. i would love it if i could use this code to somehow have a dropdown of authors. if i have to create each author by hand for the dropdown options, that's fine. any help is appreciated. thanks in advance.

here's a look at the code i'm using for a dropdown:

<!–By Month–>
<div class="side">
<select style="width:150px;" onchange="document.location=options[selectedIndex].value;" class="jumpbox">
<option value="" selected="selected">By Date…</option>
<option value="">—</option>
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<option value="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$> (<$MTArchiveCount$>)</option>
</MTArchiveList>
</select>
</div>

I tend to do that from time to time. hehe. Thank God parse errors tell me what line the error is on.