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Oliver Sacks

Goodreads author profile

born

July 09, 1933 in London, The United Kingdom

gender

male

website

http://www.oliversacks.com/

genre

Science, Nonfiction

member since

March 2012

About this author

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Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and ent...more Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.

His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".

Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintains a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks has been awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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21 posts
Oliver Sacks's Blog

The Man Who Forgot How to Read

This coming weekend, a documentary film inspired by Dr. Sacks’s latest book,The Mind’s Eye, will be broadcast on BBC World News.“The Man Who Forgot How to Read”explores face blindness, stereo vision, and other visual themes, featuring interviews with a number of the subjects in The Mind’s Eye. Here isStereo Sue(aka Susan R. Barry) enjoying a 3-D movie:

The film also featuresnovelistHoward Engela... read more »

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Published on May 16, 2012 07:28 • 103 views

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Books by Oliver Sacks

Average rating: 3.96 · 48,089 ratings · 4,121 reviews · 23 distinct works

	The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat & Other Clinical Tales 3.99 avg rating — 23,336 ratings — published 1970 — 55 editions	My rating:
	Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain 3.77 avg rating — 8,079 ratings — published 2007 — 32 editions	My rating:
	An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales 4.14 avg rating — 4,209 ratings — published 1995 — 28 editions	My rating:
	Awakenings 3.99 avg rating — 2,241 ratings — published 1973 — 27 editions	My rating:
	The Mind's Eye 3.74 avg rating — 1,734 ratings — published 2010 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Uncle Tungsten 3.83 avg rating — 1,297 ratings — published 2001 — 20 editions	My rating:
	The Island of the Colorblind 3.85 avg rating — 1,207 ratings — published 1996 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Seeing Voices 3.98 avg rating — 909 ratings — published 1989 — 17 editions	My rating:
	A Leg to Stand On 3.82 avg rating — 599 ratings — published 1984 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Migraine 3.68 avg rating — 387 ratings — published 1970 — 23 editions	My rating:

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Oliver Sacks wrote a new blog post: The Man Who Forgot How to Read The Man Who Forgot How to Read This coming weekend, a documentary film inspired by Dr. Sacks’s latest book,The Mind’s Eye, will be broadcast on BBC World News.“The Man Who Forgot... read more »
May 16, 2012 06:23pm · like 3 likes
Oliver Sacks gave to: The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History by David Beerling	My rating:
Apr 17, 2012 06:43pm
Oliver Sacks gave to: Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:18am
Oliver Sacks gave to: The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World by Jenny Uglow	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:18am
Oliver Sacks gave to: Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions by Susan R. Barry	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:17am
Oliver Sacks gave to: The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:17am
Oliver Sacks gave to: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:16am
Oliver Sacks gave to: The Man Who Forgot How To Read by Howard Engel	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:14am
Oliver Sacks gave to: The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human by V.S. Ramachandran	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:13am
Oliver Sacks gave to: Opium And The Romantic Imagination by Alethea Hayter	My rating:
Apr 05, 2012 08:12am

More of Oliver's books…

Quotes by Oliver Sacks

“Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.”
― Oliver Sacks

71 people liked it

“My religion is nature. That’s what arouses those feelings of wonder and mysticism and gratitude in me.”
― Oliver Sacks

tags: naturalist

49 people liked it

“Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.”
― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: La Musique, Le Cerveau Et Nous

35 people liked it

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