diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index 917bdf144..21b0134dd 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -935,7 +935,9 @@ These options influence manual page output.
      well as the name of the manual page (in the NAME section).
    * *description*: description of the manual page.  This is used in the NAME
      section.
-   * *authors*: A list of strings with authors, or a single string.
+   * *authors*: A list of strings with authors, or a single string.  Can be
+     an empty string or list if you do not want to automatically generate
+     an AUTHORS section in the manual page.
    * *section*: The manual page section.  Used for the output file name as well
      as in the manual page header.
 
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/manpage.py b/sphinx/builders/manpage.py
index fa795a155..756e4732f 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/manpage.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/manpage.py
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@ class ManualPageBuilder(Builder):
         for info in self.config.man_pages:
             docname, name, description, authors, section = info
             if isinstance(authors, basestring):
-                authors = [authors]
+                if authors:
+                    authors = [authors]
+                else:
+                    authors = []
 
             targetname = '%s.%s' % (name, section)
             self.info(darkgreen(targetname) + ' { ', nonl=True)
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/manpage.py b/sphinx/writers/manpage.py
index 325d5001d..3d4f18cbe 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/manpage.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/manpage.py
@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ class ManualPageTranslator(BaseTranslator):
         # docinfo set by man_pages config value
         self._docinfo['title'] = self.document.settings.title
         self._docinfo['subtitle'] = self.document.settings.subtitle
-        self._docinfo['author'] = self.document.settings.authors
+        if self.document.settings.authors:
+            # don't set it if no author given
+            self._docinfo['author'] = self.document.settings.authors
         self._docinfo['manual_section'] = self.document.settings.section
 
         # docinfo set by other config values