How important is it to know an authors life if you're reading

I do not know the way I should interpret your post, OP.
Perhaps you could tell me a bit about your life so I can obtain the perspective that is necessary to come to a harmonic understanding.

>>8916400
1995: Birth
1995-2000: Moving from country to country in Asia until ending up in Germany
2000-2015: Hell desu
2015-Now: Mentally unstable, virgin NEET

>>8916377
It depends on the author. If it's someone puddle deep like Franzen it doesn't matter but with anyone who writes anything more than slightly complex it helps.

Technically, you shouldn't have to know anything about the author. It is useful, yes, but not necessary. You can clearly see that, for example, Kafka had problems with authority figures while you're reading The Trial. Knowing about his relationship with his father only confirms what you've read.
I don't actively seek out and read about a writer before reading their works, but I won't mind a short bio from the book I'm reading.

A personal anecdote - while I was reading a collection of Yesenin's poems, I came across one of his "Persian motifs" (specifically, "Boздyх пpoзpaчный и cиний") and I was simply baffled. I had to reread the poem at least three times to digest it. The reason is my stereotypization of Yesenin. I was familiar with his life and previous poetry, and expected more of his stuff about alcoholism, whores and depression, not some abstract and sincere description of love with a bunch of exotic motifs. Had I not have known it was Yesenin, I wouldn't have applied my simplified image of his personality to the poem and would've understood it more quickly and easily.

I think it's best to leave it until afterwards. If it sheds a different light on things, fine, but I think it's more harmful than helpful to always be on the lookout for any autobiographical relevance on a first reading.

>>8916569
You should generally be able to understand a text without it, but it can be interesting as a supplement if you really want to dig deep into why someone wrote something the way they did.