Poe suffered from recurrent depression, suggesting a bipolar disorder, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, which in fact led to his death from complications related to alcoholism. Various hypotheses were put forward, including Wernicke's encephalopathy. Poe's desire to write and his attraction to art and culture seems natural given his parents both worked as actors in the theatre. His father abandoned the family a year after Edgar was born and his mother died a year later, leaving him orphaned. Though his foster family never formally adopted him and were always detached, he remained with them until his early adulthood, with their begrudging support of his desire for college studies despite frequent clashes about financial obligations.
