I appreciate you separating the author personally from his work. Many find that difficult to impossible. As I learned, for example, of T.S. Eliot's anti-Semitism I wondered would it have an effect on my appreciation of his work. I'm not a great fan of poetry in general. But Eliot, along with Sylvia Plath & W.B. Yeats do touch me.

If we can't separate the creator from the created, we're probably in big trouble over the long haul, because very view of the best pass muster.