The character arc of Oliver Sacks

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born on 9 July 1933 in Cricklewood, London, the youngest of four children of two doctors. Between then and 2015 sit a medical degree at Oxford in 1958, a move to the United States, an internship in San Francisco and a residency at UCLA, a Californian squat record and more than a hundred thousand miles on a motorcycle, all of it given up at once, a post at a chronic care hospital in the Bronx, Awakenings in 1973, an Academy Award nominated film of it in 1990, a shelf of case studies, a first public account of his own life in 2015, and his death in New York on 30 August 2015.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Oliver Sacks?

He gave all of it up, and then wrote everything down.

He was the youngest of four children born in London to Jewish parents, both of them doctors. He took his medical degree at The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1958 and moved to the United States, where he spent almost the whole of his career. He interned in San Francisco and did his residency in neurology and neuropathology in Los Angeles.

Those Californian years were not quiet. By his own written account he experimented heavily with drugs, trained at a famous outdoor gym and for a time held a state record after squatting six hundred pounds, and put more than a hundred thousand miles on a motorcycle. And then one day he gave all of it up at once: the drugs, the motorcycles and the weights. After moving to New York he read a nineteenth century doctor's book on migraine and decided that what he wanted to do was write down what he saw in his patients.

He took a post as a neurologist at a chronic care hospital in the Bronx, where there was a group of people who had survived an epidemic of sleeping sickness in the 1920s and had been unable to move by themselves for decades. His treatment of them became Awakenings in 1973, which was made into a film nominated for an Academy Award in 1990. His other books are mostly collections of case studies of people with neurological conditions, including himself, and one of them was made into an opera. A newspaper called him the poet laureate of contemporary medicine. He wrote about his own homosexuality in public for the first time in 2015, in his second autobiography, the year he died. He was treated for a cancer of the eye in 2006 and it eventually returned and spread. He died in New York on 30 August 2015, aged eighty two. Journals and letters found afterwards indicate that some of his work was embellished or exaggerated, which is part of the record too.

The moments

Oliver Sacks's timeline.

The 1930s

9 Jul 1933

Youngest of four

Everyday. A house with two doctors in it, and four children.

The 1950s

~1958

A medical degree at Oxford

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Qualified in England, and then he left.

The 1960s

~1961

Six hundred pounds

Milestone, and it changed everything. A state weightlifting record and a hundred thousand miles of road, before the books.

~1962

The pharmacological years

Setback, and it changed everything. His own phrase for it, in his own book, and he did not soften it.

~1965

He gives it all up

Milestone, and it changed everything. All of it, in one decision, and then a book about migraine started the rest.

1 Jan 1965

Keep the California life

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: stop, and write, taken, or carry on as he was. He took the post in the Bronx and published Awakenings in 1973.

~1966

The ward in the Bronx

Milestone, and it changed everything. A ward of people who had not moved by themselves since the 1920s.

The 1970s

~1973

Awakenings

Milestone, and it changed everything. The book that made a ward of forgotten people visible.

The 1980s

~1985

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Milestone, and it changed everything. Case notes, written as literature, and one of them became an opera.

The 1990s

~1990

A film of the ward

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Seventeen years after the book, the ward was on cinema screens.

The 2000s

~2006

A cancer in one eye

Setback, and it changed his direction. A neurologist, and the illness came for his sight.

The 2010s

May 2015

On the Move

Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighty one years old, and he told it himself, at last, in print.

30 Aug 2015

He dies in New York

Setback, and it changed everything. Eighty two, in the city he had written from for fifty years.

The case studies are still assigned to medical students, and the patients in them still have names. What it set moving changed a whole profession's manners: neurology had written about conditions, and he wrote about people, and it is very hard now to find a doctor who was taught otherwise.

What he wrote

Books by Oliver Sacks

1973
Awakenings
The ward of sleeping sickness survivors, and what happened when they woke.
1985
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Case histories written as literature, and later made into an opera.
2015
On the Move: A Life
His second autobiography, and the first time he wrote publicly about his own sexuality.

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Oliver Sacks: frequently asked questions

What people ask about his line.

What is Oliver Sacks's character arc?

A London doctor's son who qualified at Oxford, spent his Californian years on weights, motorcycles and drugs, gave all of it up at once, took a post on a forgotten hospital ward in the Bronx, and wrote the book that came out of it.

What is Awakenings by Oliver Sacks?

His 1973 book about a group of patients at a chronic care hospital in the Bronx who had survived a sleeping sickness epidemic in the 1920s and had been unable to move by themselves for decades. It was made into a film nominated for an Academy Award in 1990.

Did Oliver Sacks hold a weightlifting record?

For a time, yes. During his years in California he trained at a well known outdoor gym and held a state record after performing a full squat with six hundred pounds across his shoulders. He also rode more than a hundred thousand miles on a motorcycle.

Why did Oliver Sacks start writing?

After giving up the drugs, the motorcycles and the bodybuilding in one decision. He has written that in New York a reading of a nineteenth century migraine doctor inspired him to chronicle his own observations of neurological disease and oddities.

What books did Oliver Sacks write?

Awakenings in 1973, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat in 1985, which became the basis of an opera, and many others, mostly collections of case studies of people with neurological conditions, including himself. His second autobiography came out in 2015.

Was Oliver Sacks's work questioned?

Yes, after his death. Journals and letters written by him and discovered afterwards indicate that some of his work was embellished or exaggerated. He was also called, by a newspaper, one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century. Both are on the record.

Where does this timeline of Oliver Sacks's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Oliver Sacks isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to him.

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Sources

Oliver Sacks, English Wikipedia biography.
Britannica, biography of Oliver Sacks.
Publisher records for Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and On the Move.