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Yes, just like Emily Dickinson's poetry will be defined by her isolation, and Vincent Van Gogh's art by his mental illness. Our cultural interpretation of an artist's work, particularly for those with iconically unique lives, is inextricable from how they lived.

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Beethoven and his deafness is another example. His condition profoundly effected his music, listen to Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement, when played by the right pianist you can feel his loss and frustration.

That's interesting because I think his Ninth (most famous for his use of the poem Ode to Joy) is just incredible, well, so does everyone else in the world too I guess. But he was already at his peak deafness in 1812, six years before the Ninth. I always thought of it as a big ol' F-U to his deafness. On the other hand, perhaps the Moonlight Sonata, in 1802, was sad because that's when he started to lose his hearing, and by 1818 he had accepted it.

I think this depends on the artist (though perhaps you're already conceding this point with your "particularly for" qualifier). Caravaggio had masterful control of lighting and form, but was a murderer (manslaughterer). Someone who knows of DFW's interactions with Mary Karr would likely interpret Infinite Jest the same way as one who doesn't. I don't think ESR's politics have any bearings on cathedrals vis-à-vis bazaars.

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