Dubbed “the poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times, Dr. Oliver Sacks is one of the great medical writers and storytellers of our time. He has transformed our understanding of the human mind and restored narrative to a central place in the practice of medicine.

His bestselling books, including Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, entertain, enlighten, and inspire his many fans around the world, demonstrating “the freedom and potential of the human spirit against a physiological fate.”
 
With profound compassion and ceaseless curiosity, Sacks transports us into the uncanny worlds of his neurological patients — the surgeon who performs delicate operations despite the compulsive tics and outbursts of his Tourette’s syndrome; the artist who loses the ability to see, or even to imagine or dream, in color; the woman with Alzheimer’s who cannot identify people and objects by sight but uses music and color to order her world. Through countless acts of creativity, large and small, these people have made full and rich lives and can teach us much about being human.

In 1966 Dr. Sacks encountered a group of survivors of the “sleeping sickness” epidemic that killed millions in the 1920s. Frozen like human statues for decades, these men and women were the victims of a forgotten disease that had long since been considered untreatable. After administering the experimental drug L-dopa, Sacks saw them awaken with “an explosive quality, as of corks released from a great depth.” His bestselling book about their experiences inspired the feature film Awakenings (starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
 

Just wanted to be sure that you all knew that this was a big success…packed house and rave reviews…

Washington University

In his stories of individual patients adapting to and surviving various neurological conditions, and in his brilliant explorations of the nature of perception, memory, consciousness and creativity, Sacks enlarges our understanding of the complexities of the human mind.

In Uncle Tungsten: Memories of A Chemical Boyhood, Sacks looks back on his childhood in wartime London, revealing his boyhood passion for chemistry, photography, museums and books as the source of his lifelong scientific curiosity and sense of wonder. The book was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review.

Dr. Sacks is a practicing physician and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. His books are used in universities worldwide, in subjects as diverse as medicine, writing, psychology, bioethics, philosophy, chemistry and religion.

Dr. Sacks has received numerous literary and medical awards, including grants from the Guggenheim and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundations. His latest book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, is an examination of the power of music through the individual experience.