Oliver Sacks Dies at 82; Neurologist and Author Explored the Brain’s Quirks
Source: NYT
Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and acclaimed author who explored some of the brain’s strangest pathways in best-selling case histories like “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” using his patients’ disorders as starting points for eloquent meditations on consciousness and the human condition, died Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 82.
The cause was cancer, said Kate Edgar, his longtime personal assistant.
Dr. Sacks announced in February, in an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times, that an earlier melanoma in his eye had spread to his liver and that he was in the late stages of terminal cancer.
As a medical doctor and a writer, Dr. Sacks achieved a level of popular renown rare among scientists. More than a million copies of his books are in print in the United States, his work was adapted for film and stage, and he received about 10,000 letters a year. (“I invariably reply to people under 10, over 90 or in prison,” he once said.)
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/science/oliver-sacks-dies-at-82-neurologist-and-author-explored-the-brains-quirks.html?_r=0
Knew it was coming, but still so sad -- he inspired me so much when I was growing up.
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of his illness.
He was an amazing writer and my introduction to Temple Grandin.
But it still saddens me more than I expected. RIP, Dr Sacks.
You taught us so much and we are grateful.
Response to DeadLetterOffice (Original post)
Response to Hekate (Reply #13)
I found his outlook to be very humane and kind. Each of the "cases" he described was a real person -- they never lost their personhood or humanity in his telling, and in fact regained those qualities for his readers.
One poster above thinks he put on a freak show for popular entertainment, but that is far from my experience.
Safe passage, and rest in peace, Oliver Sacks. Thank you for your insights. 
