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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

115 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.

The Letters of Oliver Sacks: A Reading and Conversation

Please join us to celebrate the publication of Letters, the new collection of Oliver Sacks’s correspondence! November 7, 2024, at 8 pm at 92Y in NYC (and online), with Zachary Quinto, Kay Redfield Jamison, Maria Popova, Wendy Lesser, Bill Hayes, Ira Flatow, Michael Grassi, and Kate Edgar.

Pioneering neurologist and bestselling author Oliver Sacks — a self-described “philosophical physician” and “ne

Combine Editions
Oliver Sacks’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 509,373 ratings · 30,606 reviews · 109 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales 4.05 avg rating — 229,828 ratings — published 1985 — 246 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 — 70,680 ratings — published 2007 — 127 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 — 24,138 ratings — published 2012 — 89 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 — 22,735 ratings — published 1995 — 120 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 — 22,360 ratings — published 2015 — 51 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 4.02 avg rating — 20,921 ratings — published 2015 — 72 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 4.09 avg rating — 13,367 ratings — published 1973 — 119 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 — 13,243 ratings — published 2010 — 95 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 3.99 avg rating — 6,756 ratings — published 2001 — 72 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 3.95 avg rating — 6,484 ratings — published 2017 — 48 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 — 27,677 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

2115 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

452 likes

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

tags: naturalist

383 likes

See all Oliver Sacks's quotes »

Polls

GdL Saggistica - Luglio-Agosto 2017. Scegli il titolo che vuoi leggere nel bimestre.

I bottoni di Napoleone: Come 17 molecole hanno cambiato la storia di Penny Le Couteur

26 votes, 19.5%

Dalla parte delle bambine di Elena Gianini Belotti

24 votes, 18.0%

Mein Kampf di Adolf Hitler

16 votes, 12.0%

Quiet: il potere degli introversi in un mondo che non sa smettere di parlare di Susan Cain

14 votes, 10.5%

In movimento di Oliver Sacks

13 votes, 9.8%

Un giorno della mia vita: L'inferno del carcere e la tragedia dell'Irlanda in lotta di Bobby Sands

11 votes, 8.3%

La O di Giotto di Serena Romano

9 votes, 6.8%

I marziani siamo noi. Un filo rosso dal Big Bang alla vita di Giovanni F. Bignami

9 votes, 6.8%

Scienza del magico di Matt Kaplan

6 votes, 4.5%

Autobiografia di Malcolm X di Malcolm X

5 votes, 3.8%

133 total votes

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Oliver Sacks’s Followers (9,205)

Add NewVideos

Oliver Sacks

115 postsOliver Sacks's Blog

The Letters of Oliver Sacks: A Reading and Conversation

Combine EditionsOliver Sacks’s books

Series by Oliver Sacks

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

115 posts
Oliver Sacks's Blog

Combine Editions
Oliver Sacks’s books