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I miss my dear friend, Thom Gunn
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Thom Gunn was an excellent teacher
Oliver Sacks
Scientist
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Views | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 271. The second half of Uncle Tungsten: inspiration and... | 186 | 03:11 | |
| 272. Uncle Tungsten: I want my work delivered in full, not... | 176 | 01:30 | |
| 273. My handsome mug | 1 | 261 | 01:10 |
| 274. My love of Kew Gardens | 238 | 01:10 | |
| 275. The Sense of Movement by Thom Gunn | 319 | 02:08 | |
| 276. Thom Gunn's comments on my writing style | 250 | 01:44 | |
| 277. A scary first experience of steep Filbert Street, San Francisco | 205 | 01:14 | |
| 278. My last meeting with Thom Gunn and his death | 1 | 528 | 03:59 |
| 279. Thom Gunn's unique style of poetry | 306 | 01:34 | |
| 280. Thom Gunn was an excellent teacher | 250 | 00:53 |
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Thom was, I am told, was a very good teacher. He would teach one semester a year at Berkeley. He... they wanted him to teach more, but he didn’t. He said he could provide for himself and make a living, and that was enough. Otherwise he wanted no impediment to his poetry. But he was chronically… I think... I think he had to live and did live very austerely, although he was extremely generous personally, and I was very delighted, as I think he was, when he got a MacArthur. So in his last years he was able to travel and he enjoyed a sort of ease which... which he had never had before.
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: Thom Gunn was an excellent teacher
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: Berkeley, MacArthur, Thom Gunn
Duration: 53 seconds
Date story recorded: September 2011
Date story went live: 02 October 2012
