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Oliver Sacks

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

July 09, 1933

Died

August 30, 2015

Website

http://www.oliversacks.com/

Genre

Science, Nonfiction, Musicology

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Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was 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, O Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was 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 was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks was 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 was 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. ...more

102 posts
Oliver Sacks's Blog

Oliver Sacks isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Awakenings Recording Now Available

The world premiere recording of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman’s opera, Awakenings, is now available to stream on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music.

Set in a Bronx hospital in the late 1960s, Tobias Picker’s Awakenings tells the true story of neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who received worldwide acclaim for awakening survivors of the “sleeping-sickness” epidemic of the 1920s from their decades

Combine Editions
Oliver Sacks’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 477,416 ratings · 28,191 reviews · 102 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales 4.06 avg rating — 213,345 ratings — published 1985 — 234 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain 3.95 avg rating — 67,453 ratings — published 2007 — 123 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales 4.15 avg rating — 21,703 ratings — published 1995 — 115 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hallucinations 3.92 avg rating — 22,986 ratings — published 2012 — 93 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gratitude 4.18 avg rating — 20,726 ratings — published 2015 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On the Move: A Life 4.01 avg rating — 20,416 ratings — published 2015 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Awakenings 4.10 avg rating — 12,566 ratings — published 1973 — 112 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mind's Eye 3.92 avg rating — 12,715 ratings — published 2010 — 90 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Uncle Tungsten 3.98 avg rating — 6,428 ratings — published 2001 — 77 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The River of Consciousness 3.94 avg rating — 5,720 ratings — published 2017 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Oliver Sacks…

Series by Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks' memoirs (2 books)
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Oliver Sacks

4.01 avg rating — 26,843 ratings

Quotes by Oliver Sacks (?)

“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

2102 likes

“If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.”
― Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

426 likes

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

tags: naturalist

374 likes

See all Oliver Sacks's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read for our September 2022 Group Read? The theme is Trust.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Mystery, Hercule Poirot, Murder, Secrets

25 votes 20.7%

1984 by George Orwell
Classic, Dystopian, Totalitarianism

24 votes 19.8%

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Romania, Communism

16 votes 13.2%

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
Non-Fiction, Psychology, Neurology

16 votes 13.2%

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
Fiction, Animals, Love

14 votes 11.6%

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Classic, Horror, Victorian, Ghosts

14 votes 11.6%

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Classic, Fiction, Romance

12 votes 9.9%

121 total votes

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Oliver Sacks’s Followers (8,529)

Add NewVideos

Oliver Sacks

102 postsOliver Sacks's Blog

Awakenings Recording Now Available

Combine EditionsOliver Sacks’s books

Series by Oliver Sacks

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

102 posts
Oliver Sacks's Blog

Combine Editions
Oliver Sacks’s books