What role did " learning to read and write" play in the authors life ?

Without knowing how to read and write, the author would have never been about to write the book.

In general, it depends on the time the author was taught to read and write. For example, William Shakespeare learned to write and read in the Renaissance time period. His influence on his writing was significantly different than modern writing techniques. Time period has a great impact on how they learned to write and read.  Shakespeare had a technique of writing that today seems almost like a different language because of how foreignly he was taught to read and write.