Do We Really Want to Know?

Literary scholars and readers disagree about whether we should consider authors' biographies when we judge their books. Some say yes, that knowing about their lives enriches our understanding of their books. Others say no, the books stand alone. What about you? Do you like to know a lot about authors before you read their books? Are you disappointed when the author blurb at the back of a book is too short and unrevealing? Do you like to see an author photo on the inside of the back book cover? After you find favorite authors, do you read up on them and their lives? Do you attend author lectures and readings? Watch their appearances on TV? Speculate about whether or not their stories have autobiographical roots? Do you like literary gossip? Or does all of this seem irrelevant and uninteresting to you? Do you even purposely avoid learning too much about authors, in case that knowledge negatively affects your appreciation of their books? We readers are all different in this regard. Personally, I enjoy learning about authors' lives, and I will confess to an interest in "gossip" about them. I admire writers -- especially writers of fiction -- immensely, yet find it reassuring to learn of evidence that they are not perfect beings but are instead very human and fallible. I am not consistent, though; if I learn something really terrible about an author, I find it hard to put it out of my mind and continue reading and enjoying his or her books.