Ford Pines

Stanford "Ford" Pines (born late 1940s – early 1950s in Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey), also known as the Author, is a mysterious paranormal investigator who came to Gravity Falls, Oregon, to study the huge concentration of supernatural activity in and around the town. After spending years cataloging his research in a series of journals, he disappeared into an alternate dimension, his writings the only evidence of his existence.

His identity and whereabouts were a central mystery of the Gravity Falls series until the middle of the show's second season, when he was revealed to be Stan Pines' long-lost twin brother who vanished into an alternate universe after a falling out with his brother caused him to stumble into the universe portal.

Early Life
The Author grew up in New Jersey along with his twin brother Stan. At one point, the two brothers found a broken ship, they decided to rebuild it and name it the Stanowar. To toughen them up, their father made his brother and him take boxing lessons. At one point in his childhood, the Author, along with Stan, observed the seaside, while swinging on a swing.

In the 1970s, a year before college, Stanford had built a machine which impressed all of his teachers. Because of this machine he got a chance to go to the best college in the USA, West Coast Tech. But by anger, Stanley accidently broke his machine and any chance of going to his dream college. So instead, he had to go to Backupsmore. He had to work twice as hard which is what he does best. He went from undergrad to PHD three years ahead. Without anything to do, he decided to study anomalies by looking at his six-fingered hand. He discovers that the location with the most anomalies what Gravity Falls, Oregon. So Stanford settled in Gravity Falls in the midst of his travels, dedicating six long years to studying the supernatural secrets of Gravity Falls. His discoveries were recorded in a series of journals encrypted with a drawing of a six-fingered hand, representing his own. But he always wondered, where did all this stuff come from? He decide to build a portal, a punched hole in a weak spot in our dimension, to another. Recruiting the help of a college friend, Fiddleford McGucket. However, as construction was complete and almost activated, McGucket accidently went into the portal but got pulled out by Stanford. McGucket knew that the portal could bring the end of times, and so he quit the project, erasing all his memory of it with his memory erasing invention. Desperate to finish his creation and confident in its ability, the Author carried on the crafting of the device.

At one point in his stay within the town, the man summoned and befriended Bill Cipher, deceived by the demon's seemingly affable nature. He soon saw through Bill's facade and sought a way to defeat him, and he was seemingly successful. As his work in Gravity Falls continued, the Author found himself increasingly paranoid and fearful, developing a fear of an unknown entity referred to only as "He." Now writing in his journals via invisible ink, the researcher took extreme security measures in the creation of an underground laboratory serving as a fallout shelter, keeping it hidden beneath the Gravity Falls forest. Sometime around 1982, he called his brother so he can get as far away as possible with Journal 1 since it has the blueprints for the portal. However for this reason, Stanley got mad and started a fight. They accidently activated the portal and Stanley accidently pushed Stan into the portal. However he reappeared from the portal, during the events of "Not What He Seems."

Following his disappearance, he threw Journal 1 into the hands of Stan Pines, who began a search for his journals as a means for the Author's machine to function, spending thirty long years hunting for their knowledge. He remained among one of the few people aware of the journals' power, the other being Gideon Gleeful, who was able to locate Journal 2, and eventually, Dipper Pines, who located Journal 3.

Season 1
In "Tourist Trapped," Dipper unwittingly stumbles upon his third journal and becomes entranced by the information it contains, and he quickly begins to use this knowledge to aid him in his encounters with the supernatural.

In the episode "The Time Traveler's Pig", the author can be seen sticking his head out of the snowy Mystery Shack.

The next on-screen appearance of him is in "Dreamscaperers," where he can be spotted in Stan's memories, sitting in the background, and holding a book over his face.

Eventually, Dipper and his family become entangled in Gideon's quest to learn the Author's secrets, convinced this knowledge would give him unprecedented power that would allow him to take over Gravity Falls. Gideon nearly achieves his goal of gaining all three journals in "Gideon Rises," but is stopped by Dipper and Mabel. His defeat enables Stan to seize possession of Journal 2, and Dipper's revelation of his ownership of Journal 3 lets him complete this same goal.

Season 2
After learning about the invisible ink in his Journal, Dipper leads his friends into the Author's bunker to search for clues on his whereabouts in "Into the Bunker." There, they come face-to-face with the mysterious figure's 210th experiment, the Shape Shifter. After successfully recapturing the beast, they emerge with their greatest lead yet: the Author's laptop.

In "Sock Opera," Dipper devotes himself almost excessively to cracking the password for the laptop. After innumerable failed attempts, he makes a deal with Bill Cipher, but is tricked into letting the demon take possession of his body. Bill destroys the laptop to prevent Dipper from coming any closer to finding out some "major answers" and attempts to do the same to Journal #3, but is stopped by Mabel.

In "Society of the Blind Eye," after discovering that the laptop was manufactured by McGucket Labs, Dipper becomes convinced that Old Man McGucket is the Author of the books. In his confrontation with the elderly man, Dipper learns of the mysterious Blind Eye Society and goes to look for them. Recovering McGucket's stolen memories from the Society reminds him that he worked side by side with the Author (and that the laptop belonged to him, not the author), and begins trying to remember the man's identity.

In "Northwest Mansion Mystery" McGucket succeeds in fixing the laptop, and discovers a countdown to an "Imminent Danger" which McGucket refers to as the end times. In "Not What He Seems," it is revealed that Stan has been collecting radioactive waste, for the purpose of powering a doomsday device, and the twins encounter an old newspaper article which claims Stan Pines to be deceased. Contrary to this incriminating article, it is discovered that Stan Pines is at least the direct brother of, if not, the one mentioned in the article who is actually alive. At the same time as this discovery the author of the journals is definitively identified, after his emergence from a portal in the center of the aforementioned "doomsday device," by Stan's reference to him as his "brother."

In "A Tale of Two Stans" the author, Dipper, Mabel and Soos ask Grunkle Stan about everything that's going on, so he explains in backstory (see in Early Life) after Stan's tale, Stanford takes Dipper's mind erasing gun and amplifies it to the outside so the agents forget about this entire operation. He soon talks to his brother, he says he can have the house for the rest of the summer but after that he gives him his name back and his house. Stanley says to stay away from Dipper and Mabel.

Appearance
Being the twin of Stan Pines, the Author bears a close resemblance to him. However, there are a few notable differences: He appears younger than his brother, still having brown hair which is only partly grey, and only has a few hairs on his chin whereas his twin's is covered in grey stubble. He is seen wearing a large black coat with multiple pockets on the inside, and an item that appears to be a gun rested on his back. Underneath his coat, he wears a black shirt and pants. He also dons bulky black boots, a brown belt that slings from his shoulder, a tattered cape, and a gray scarf. He has a polydactyly (meaning, in this case, that he has an extra finger), and in fact, has six fingers on not only his left hand, but, it appears, on his right, as he displays when opening his coat at the end of "Not What He Seems."

Quotes
"It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon."

- The first entry in Journal 3 ("Tourist Trapped")

"Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust."

- Tourist Trapped.

""When fighting the Gremloblin, use water... only as a last resort as water will make him much much scarier!" AH! Who writes sentences like that!?"

- Dipper Pines reading one of the pages in Journal 3 (Boss Mabel")

"If my suspicions are correct, this is the work of Fiddleford. Does he really have to go to such great lengths to forget?"

- A deciphered entry on the Blind Eye Society in Journal 3 ("Society of the Blind Eye")

"The portal when completed will open a gateway to infinite new worlds and herald a new era in mankind's understanding of the universe. Plus, it will probably get girls to start talking to me finally."

- An entry on the Universe Portal in Journal 1 ("Gideon Rises")

Trivia

 * Alex Hirsch has on multiple occasions joked about the Author's identity:
 * He "leaked" a false image of a younger Old Man McGucket writing in a journal.
 * Via his Reddit AMA and Twitter account, he has stated the Author is actually Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
 * In Journal 2 on Bill Cipher's page, there's a quote saying "He's in my wallet!". Under it, it shows half of the back of a Negative Twelve Dollar Bill. This is odd, considering Quentin Trembley's time in office was long before the Author was born. This may mean that the Author is a collector, unless Bill is on other dollars.
 * The Author wears the same type of glasses that Stan finds in "Carpet Diem."