Poet Ronald was the author (5)
I believe the answer is:
byron
'poet' is the definition.
(Lord Byron)
'ronald was the author' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ronald' could be 'ron' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ron' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'by' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for byron that I've seen before include "Poetic lord" , "British Romantic poet" , "Romantic poet, helped Greeks" , "Author of 'Don Juan'" , "Lord George, poet" .)