Oliver Sacks Books in Order

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, is a renowned British neurologist residing in the United States, celebrated for his captivating writings about his patients. His most iconic work, Awakenings, has been adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple – Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon – Sacks was the youngest of four children. During World War II, he was evacuated from London to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. This period sparked his curiosity in chemistry, later explored in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. Sacks went on to excel in medicine, earning a Bachelor of Arts in physiology and biology from The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1954, and a Master of Arts and an MB ChB in chemistry in 1958. He later converted his qualifications to American standards, moving to New York in 1965, where he has lived ever since. As a neurologist, Sacks has made groundbreaking contributions, particularly in his work with patients at Beth Abraham Hospital, a chronic care facility, where he discovered a new approach to treating encephalitis lethargica survivors.