Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and acclaimed author whose books helped to introduce the world to concepts such as autism, died at home in New York yesterday from cancer. He was 82.
Dr Sacks was renowned for his ability to examine his cases with a writer’s eye, creating popular science bestsellers which shed light on unusual and often severe neurological conditions.
He first won widespread attention in 1973 with his book, Awakenings, later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Among his other bestselling works was The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat from 1985. The London-born author described his books and essays as case histories, pathographies, clinical tales or neurological novels.
His subjects included a blind man who regained his sight, a blind woman who perceived her hands as useless “lumps of dough”, a surgeon who developed a sudden passion for music after being struck by lightning, and a submarine radio operator whose amnesia meant he could not remember anything after 1945.
Describing his patients’ struggles and sometimes uncanny gifts, he helped to introduce syndromes such as Tourette’s and Asperger’s to a general audience.
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According to his website, Sacks’ other fields of interest included ageing, deafness, dreams, Freud, hallucinations, phantom limbs, photography and twins.
He had revealed that he had terminal cancer in an article in The New York Times in February.
“A few weeks ago, I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver,” he wrote. He said he had treatment nine years ago to treat a rare eye tumour which had left him blind in one eye, but the cancer had since spread.
“I cannot pretend I am without fear,” he said. “But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.
“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” Dr Sacks’ publicist, Jacqueline Graham, confirmed his death on Twitter, calling him “the most remarkable, special, irreplaceable person”, who was a “a joy and privilege to know and work with”.
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JK Rowling, the writer, was among those to pay tribute to his life yesterday in a tweet describing Dr Sacks as “great, humane and inspirational”. She added: “That’s a life well-lived.”
Lord Sacks, the former chief rabbi, said: “One of my great sources of pride was sharing a name with Oliver Sacks, not a relative, but one of the great healers of souls.”