Naming the book "An Anthropologist on Mars"

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Naming the book An Anthropologist on Mars

Oliver Sacks Scientist

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I now had seven long case histories, more narrative, more elaborate than anything in Hat and so I brought these together under a title which was suggested to me by Temple Grandin. She said she was trying to understand human beings, they were really very odd. She said she often felt like an anthropologist on Mars and so... and so the seven pieces were brought together as An Anthropologist on Mars and... and of course, illustrated by drawings, by the... by paintings and drawings by the artists. My own opinion is that this was a finer and deeper book than The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat although I think it was never quite a hit in the same way, but I think it may last longer. And I dedicated it to the seven people I wrote about.

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: Naming the book "An Anthropologist on Mars"

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: The Man Who, An Anthropologist on Mars, Temple Grandin

Duration: 1 minute, 13 seconds

Date story recorded: September 2011

Date story went live: 02 October 2012