diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/InitCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/InitCommand.php
index c792d12f7..11a19de26 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/InitCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/InitCommand.php
@@ -479,10 +479,15 @@ EOT
      */
     public function parseAuthorString($author)
     {
-        if (Preg::isMatch('/^(?P<name>[- .,\p{L}\p{N}\p{Mn}\'’"()]+)(?: <(?P<email>.+?)>)?$/u', $author, $match)) {
+        if (Preg::isMatch('/^(?P<name>[- .,\p{L}\p{N}\p{Mn}\'’"()]+)(?:\s+<(?P<email>.+?)>)?$/u', $author, $match)) {
+            $hasEmail = isset($match['email']) && '' !== $match['email'];
+            if ($hasEmail && !$this->isValidEmail($match['email'])) {
+                throw new \InvalidArgumentException('Invalid email "'.$match['email'].'"');
+            }
+
             return array(
                 'name' => trim($match['name']),
-                'email' => (isset($match['email']) && '' !== $match['email'] && $this->isValidEmail($match['email'])) ? $match['email'] : null,
+                'email' => $hasEmail ? $match['email'] : null,
             );
         }
 
@@ -690,7 +695,7 @@ EOT
      */
     protected function formatAuthors($author)
     {
-        return array(array_filter($this->parseAuthorString($author)));
+        return array(array_filter($this->parseAuthorString($author), 'is_string'));
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Command/InitCommandTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Command/InitCommandTest.php
index 8006fe106..d9a4f57c4 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/Command/InitCommandTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Command/InitCommandTest.php
@@ -25,6 +25,14 @@ class InitCommandTest extends TestCase
         $this->assertEquals('john@example.com', $author['email']);
     }
 
+    public function testParseValidAuthorStringWithoutEmail()
+    {
+        $command = new InitCommand;
+        $author = $command->parseAuthorString('John Smith');
+        $this->assertEquals('John Smith', $author['name']);
+        $this->assertNull($author['email']);
+    }
+
     public function testParseValidUtf8AuthorString()
     {
         $command = new InitCommand;