Oliver Sacks

Presents a series of stories about men and women who, representing both medical and literary oddities, raise fundamental questions about the nature of reality

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

Tales of Music and the Brain

Musicophilia

"In July 2013, Oliver Sacks turned eighty and wrote [a] ... piece in The New York Times about the prospect of old age and the freedom he envisioned for himself in binding together the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime. Eighteen months later, he was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer--which he announced publicly in another piece in The New York Times. Gratitude is Sacks's meditation on why life [continued] to enthrall him even as he [faced] the all-too-close presence of his own death, and how to live out the months that [remained] in the richest and deepest way possible"--

Gratitude

Physician and writer Oliver Sacks recounts his experiences as a young neurologist; his physical passions--weight lifting and swimming; his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists--Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick--who influenced him.

A Life

On the Move

‘An inexhaustible tourist at the farther reaches of the mind, Sacks presents, in sparse, unsentimental prose, the stories of seven of his patients. The result is as rich, vivid and compelling as any collection of short fictional stories’ Independent on Sunday As with his previous bestseller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks uses case studies to illustrate the myriad ways in which neurological conditions can affect our sense of self, our experience of the world, and how we relate to those around us. Writing with his trademark blend of scientific rigour and human compassion, he describes patients such as the colour-blind painter or the surgeon with compulsive tics that disappear in the operating theatre; patients for whom disorientation and alienation – but also adaptation – are inescapable facts of life. ‘Sacks’ great gift is his capacity to place himself in the position of his subjects, to see the world the way they see it and to empathize with their condition with great compassion but without patronage or pity’ Daily Telegraph ‘Writing simply and beautifully, Sacks uses individual case histories to reveal the infinite complexities of the human mind’ Daily Mail

Seven Paradoxical Tales

An Anthropologist on Mars

Oliver W. Sacks

Describes the author's work with institutionalized patients at Mount Carmel Hospital and the dramatic effects of the drug L-DOPA on twenty patients suffering from encephalitic Parkinsonism

Awakenings

In The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and eventually even to recognize everyday objects; and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties. There is Pat, who, after years of isolation, reinvents herself as an outgoing and highly social member of her community, although she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence; and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read. And there is Dr Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side. Sacks explores here some very strange paradoxes - people who can see perfectly but not recognize their own children, blind people who become hyper-visual, or who navigate by 'tongue vision'. Along the way, he considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery - or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading? The Mind's Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person's eyes, or another person's mind.

The Mind's Eye

A renowned neurologist investigates the world of the deaf, examining their past and present treatment at the hands of society, and assesses the value and significance of sign language. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.

A Journey Into the World of the Deaf

Seeing Voices

The author describes his journey to islands of the Pacific where the natives displayed unusual concentrations of diseases

And, Cycad Island

The Island of the Colorblind

From the bestselling author of Gratitude and On the Move, a final volume of essays that showcases Sacks's broad range of interests--from his passions for ferns, swimming, and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer's. Oliver Sacks, renowned scientist and storyteller, is adored by readers for his neurological case histories, his fascination and familiarity with human behaviour at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. Everything in Its Place is a celebration of Sacks's myriad interests, all told with his characteristic compassion, erudition, and luminous prose. From the celebrated case history of Spalding Gray that appeared in The New Yorker four months before his death to reflections on mental asylums; from piercing accounts of Schizophrenia to a reminiscence of Robin Williams; from the riveting tale of a medical colleague falling victim to Alzheimer's to the cinematography of Michael Powell, this volume celebrates and reflects the wondrous curiosity of Oliver Sacks.

First Loves and Last Tales

Everything in Its Place

الرجل الذي حسب زوجته قبعة

The best-selling author of Awakenings describes the symptoms and history of migraine headaches, identifies the foods and conditions that may provoke attacks, and examines possible treatments for this devastating ailment. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.

Migraine

yaşantı

Karısını şapka sanan adam

L'uomo che scambiò sua moglie per un cappello

A literary travel memoir by the acclaimed neurologist recounts his odyssey to the Mexican province of Oaxaca with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts, offering a portrait of the region, its people, and its many natural wonders.

Oaxaca Journal

A neurologist describes his struggle to recover from a mountain climbing accident and examines the effects of a neural injury on the sense of self

A Leg to Stand On

Il fiume della coscienza

An extraordinary collection of interviews with the beloved doctor and author, whose research and books inspired generations of readers. Oliver Sacks—called "the poet laureate of medicine" by the New York Times—illuminated the mysteries of the brain for a wide audience in a series of richly acclaimed books, including Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and numerous The New Yorker articles. In this collection of interviews, Sacks is at his most candid and disarming, rich with insights about his life and work. Any reader of Oliver Sacks will find in this book an entirely new way of looking at a brilliant writer.

M. D. Eder

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