The author of the book is nowhere named in Scripture. Jewish tradition had it that Jeremiah was the author. There is a similarity of Jeremiah 52 with 2 Kings 24-25. There is a similarity of writing styles, as well as the same air of despondency and hopelessness. It is noteworthy that there is no mention of Jeremiah within the books of Kings.
Textual criticism is the study of the ancient manuscripts to learn which is the true text.
There are two primary textual sources for the Books of the Kings. The Massoretes were Jewish scholars who worked at preserving the Hebrew Bible. They passed on a system of vowel pointing that was not found in the original text. This was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has uncovered manuscript fragments of a Hebrew text which often follows the Septuagint reading rather than that of the Massoretic Text.