How and why might the 'death of the author' be taken to mean the 'birth of the reader'?

Barthes essay in 1977 claimed that authorial interpretation was insignificant in finding meaning from any literary text, and the role of the reader was thus more important in interpreting a meaning. This brings up questions surrounding how much authorial intent is the foremost and only meaning a text can have, and then how much knowledge do we need of an author in order to interpret this intent, or whether readers differing meanings should be focused on …

…'Have you Eaten Yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal', Studies In English Literature 1500-1900, Vol.36, Iss.3 (1996), 603-802. Swift, Jonathon, 'A Modest Proposal', The Norton Anthology Of English Literature Volume I Ed. M. H. Abrams, New York & London: W. W Norton & Company Ltd. (2000) 2364-2367. Wimatt Jr. W. K. & Beardsley, Monroe C. 'The Intentional Fallacy', Authorship: From Plato to postmodern: A Reader, Ed. Sean Burke, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, (1995) 90-100.