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So many of Poe's characters seem to have a separation from reality.  Is this just a narrator's persona, or did Poe himself have serious mental issues?  I am thinking of modern macabre writers like Stephen King, for example, who concoct gruesome scenarios in their heads but are really fairly normal.  What do any of you know about Poe's personal life and how did it influence (or not influence) his writing?

In reply to #1: I had an English teacher who once told us that Poe was originally interested in humor, but failed dismally (horrible reviews). He drank and was considered a "falling down" drunk. According to her, he often wrote during his drunken episotic depressions.

I've often wondered if he was somewhat bi-polar.

Actually a man named Rufus Griswald is responsible for the false interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe. He did drink but he did not drink while he was writing. Poe was actually originally interested in poetry but his tales were more popular with the masses. Poe lost many women in his life including his mother at a young age and his wife shortly before his death. This resulted in him writing about the death of a beautiful woman very often. In stories such as "Berenice," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Black Cat" a young beautiful woman dies in all of them. I hope this helps. A good book that has a nice summary of his life and a lot of hisor, poems, and essays he wrote is "The Portable Edgar Allan Poe" Edited By J. Gerald Kennedy.

Anyone can be crazy, that is a very lose term associated with any abnormal behavior. (What is defined as  "normal" can be different for each individual.) Basically that means I might consider someone crazy that you do not. It is a term like "cool" simply because I feel one way towards something doesn't mean you'll agree. Insanity is a mental derangement; the person actually has a disorder or a chemical imbalance. The mental health of Edgar Allen Poe is an arguable topic - read up on him because he has some famous works that are (arguably) dark and deranged topics. He was a very talented man despite the gloominess of his poems and short stories.  I wouldn't consider him crazy, insane - rather dark and possibly troubled. I also think that perhaps he would be no 'crazier' or 'insane' than some of the people who write horror films these days. I mean, who in their right mind concocts a storyline like "Saw?"  There has to be some darkness in the mind to create some of these films, so Poe would not be any more unusual than these writers.