The Show Boat author is Edna Ferber, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and playwright. Her most famous works include the novel Show Boat, which was adapted into a Broadway musical and several films, as well as the novel Giant, which was adapted into a film starring James Dean. Ferber was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1885 and died in 1968. She wrote over 25 novels and plays during her lifetime.