SIGNED. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Sacks, Oliver - 1985: And Other Clinical Tales

New York: Summit Books, 1985. First printing.

1985 FIRST PRINTING OF LANDMARK COLLECTION OF PSYCHIATRIC CASE HISTORIES INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY OLIVER SACKS.

15x24 cm hardcover, green paper-covered boards, red cloth spine with gilt title, inscribed on title page, "To Walter, Cheers, Oliver Sacks, 2/14/86/" i-xvi, 233 pp. Spine slightly cocked, covers clean, binding tight, pages clean and unmarked, very good in very good unclipped jacket with closed tear top of back panel. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a 1985 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks describing the case histories of some of his patients. Sacks chose the title of the book from the case study of one of his patients who has visual agnosia, a neurological condition that leaves him unable to recognize faces and objects. The book became the basis of an opera of the same name by Michael Nyman, which premiered in 1986. In addition to describing the cases, Sacks comments on them, explains their pathophysiological background, discusses potential neuroscientific implications of such cases and occasionally makes reference to some psychological concepts, such as the soul, id, ego, and super-ego. OLIVER SACKS (1933-2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the United States, where he spent most of his career. He interned at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco and completed his residency in neurology and neuropathology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Later, he served as neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital's chronic-care facility in the Bronx, where he worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. His treatment of those patients became the basis of his 1973 book Awakenings, which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated feature film in 1990, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. The New York Times called him a "poet laureate of contemporary medicine", and "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century". His books have been translated into over 25 languages. In addition, Sacks was a regular contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, The New York Times, London Review of Books and numerous other medical, scientific and general publications. He was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing in 2001.