Spingboot Thymeleaf form passes null values into the controller - spring-boot

Question

could someone help me figure out why it is passing null values instead of actual names? The form has a input textbox for last name and fistname but I would only get null values when I access "authorRequest.getLastName() or authorRequest.getFirstName().
Controller:
#Controller
public class AuthorController {
private BooktownService __authorService = BooktownServiceFactory.getInstance();
private Model mod;
private String msg = "";
first endpoint, return a collection of authors
#GetMapping("/booktown/list")
public List<Author> returnAuthors() {
return __authorService.getAuthors();
}
#GetMapping("/booktown/list")
public String returnAuthors(Model model) {
this.mod = model;
Author auth= new Author();
List<Author> auths = __authorService.getAuthors();
if(msg == ""){
msg = "Listing page for Authors";
}
mod.addAttribute("authors", auths);
mod.addAttribute("authorRequest", auth);
mod.addAttribute("msg",msg);
return "list_form";
}
// third endpoint, create an Author via POST
#PostMapping("/booktown/add")
public String createAuthor(#ModelAttribute("authorRequest") Author authorRequest) {
__authorService.createAuthor(authorRequest.getLastName(), authorRequest.getFirstName());
msg = "Added Author" + authorRequest.getFirstName() + " " + authorRequest.getLastName();
return "redirect:/booktown/list";
}
// Sixth endpoint: DELETE
#GetMapping("/booktown/delete")
public String deleteAuthor(#RequestParam Integer id) {
// returns a boolean
__authorService.deleteAuthor(id);
msg = "Deleted Author " + id;
System.out.println("deleted");
return "redirect:/booktown/list";
}
}
Html:
<form action="#" th:action="#{/booktown/add}" th:object="${authorRequest}" method="post">
<p>Last name: <input type="text" th:field="*{__lastName}" /></p>
<p>First name: <input type="text" th:field="*{__firstName}" /></p>
<p><input type="submit" value="Submit" /> <input type="reset" value="Reset" /></p>
</form>
Author.java:
package com.booktown.booktownservice;
public class Author {
public Author(){}
public Author(int id, String lname, String fname) {
__id = id;
__lastName = lname;
__firstName = fname;
}
public int getAuthorID() {
return __id;
}
public String getLastName() {
return __lastName;
}
public String getFirstName() {
return __firstName;
}
public int get__id() {
return __id;
}
public String get__lastName() {
return __lastName;
}
public String get__firstName() {
return __firstName;
}
private int __id;
private String __lastName;
private String __firstName;
}