Letters

A brilliant and vivid mind, a man whose intellectual appetite was vast … Sacks is an endearing and entertaining prose stylist – inquisitive, often funny, never obtuse … Letters is crammed with off-the-cuff profundities, moments of elevated perception that briefly unriddle the more inscrutable aspects of human nature. – Ralf Webb, ‘Book of the day’ * The Guardian *Here is the unedited Oliver Sacks—struggling, passionate, a furiously intelligent misfit. And also endless interesting. He was a man like no other – Atul Gawande, author of Being MortalHere is Oliver Sacks annealed. All his largehearted curiosity, all his childlike wonder at how everything coheres, all the self-doubt trembling beneath his brilliance, come alive on these pages. One is left magnified just by bearing witness to this vast and solitary mind, searching for connection and discovering himself – Maria Popova, author of FiguringThis collection of correspondence only cements Sacks’s legacy as a man of great compassion … Sacks showed generations of doctors (and patients) how medicine is just the starting point for an exploration of the possibilities of being human. With these letters, his legacy as an extraordinary writer, humanitarian and physician is secured. * Observer *Oliver Sacks’s letters are superb—fluent, brilliant, candid, intimate—and some of them are deliriously passionate. Oliver could write a multi-page love letter as well as a lengthy analysis of a drug state or a neurological condition. Taken together, over more than fifty years, they constitute an autobiography in epistolary form – Paul Theroux, author of The Mosquito Coast and Burma SahibBe prepared to discover a world of human treasures in the letters of Oliver Sacks … One marvel here is that Sacks’ literary genius manages to reveal both sides of a conversation, although we are only made privy to his perspective on the issues – Antonio Damasio, author of Feeling and KnowingOliver Sacks is a neurologist, a man of humane eloquence, and a genuine communicator * Observer *Sacks writes in the the great tradition of literary doctors. He is humane, relaxed and amused, and loved a good anecdote * The Spectator *In addition to possessing the technical skills of a twentieth-century doctor, [Sacks] sees the human condition like a philosopher-poet * The New York Times *Marshaling this mountain of words must have been a herculean task, but Edgar has managed to compile a collection that is coherent and, most of all, very enjoyable … A lifetime of correspondence adds new dimensions to a brilliant mind’s oeuvre. * Kirkus Reviews *Sacks’s trademark lyricism is evident throughout … What emerges is a pointillistic portrait of an incredible intellect with all-too-human frailties and an insatiable curiosity about the human condition. This is an essential resource for understanding Sacks * Publishers Weekly *These well-edited letters … show the extraordinary breadth of [Sacks’] scholarship and his real genius for describing people and natural phenomena * The Telegraph *Among the best things I’ve read all year … his letters were magic * New York Times *To read these letters is to be reminded of the deeply felt humanism and ebullience that Sacks brought to his prose: They include condolences, replies to fans and long scientific musings that read like dry runs for his books. There isn’t a shred of cynicism or pessimism to be found here, only delight in sharing ideas and enthusiasms with friends, family, colleagues and fans. * Los Angeles Times *A meticulous, thorough and loving selection that constitutes not only a series of reflections and explorations but also a gripping memoir, a Bildungsroman at one remove … Sacks’s letters are always expressive of his personality, though in various modes … What makes reading through all of these missives delightful is the inescapable gift for metaphor that sparkles on almost every page. * Wall Street Journal *‘A sensitive, probing and humorous man … Sacks had a brilliant mind – and these letters reveal it further to the world * The Independent *

Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco’s Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings.

Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as ‘the poet laureate of medicine’, and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008 he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.