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Writing and weightlifting in California
Oliver Sacks
Scientist
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Views | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 101. Difficulty with reading poetry | 1 | 412 | 01:18 |
| 102. Love of photography as a boy | 322 | 01:23 | |
| 103. Photography at UCLA | 301 | 02:19 | |
| 104. Photography in neurology | 299 | 01:19 | |
| 105. Photography, migraines and neurology | 305 | 01:13 | |
| 106. Did I really have that bad a time in Oxford and California? | 351 | 01:32 | |
| 107. My US motorbike travel journal | 345 | 00:23 | |
| 108. My travel journals and experiences | 365 | 02:00 | |
| 109. Seeing the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs | 316 | 00:42 | |
| 110. Writing and weightlifting in California | 366 | 01:03 |
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I continued to write a lot when I was in California. I had introduced myself to the weightlifting scene there by doing a champion squat. In fact I squatted with 625 which was above my record. And I... I was a habitué of Sydney’s Café near the pier in Santa Monica and the whole scene there and I thought I would like to write a... a beach novel. And, again, I kept voluminous notebooks, but it became apparent to me that I... that I was not a novelist; I was only a describer and I never felt it possible to bring together all of these beach notes in the form of... of a portrait.
Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.
Title: Writing and weightlifting in California
Listeners: Kate Edgar
Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.
Tags: California, Santa Monica
Duration: 1 minute, 3 seconds
Date story recorded: September 2011
Date story went live: 02 October 2012
