LETTERS

Getting to know the more personal side of a prolific writer.

Sacks, the beloved late author, is best remembered for The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985), which collected a variety of tales that he had encountered in his clinical practice as a neurologist. In addition to more than a dozen books, he wrote numerous essays and articles, his work doing much to destigmatize mental illness and promote “patient-centered” medicine. Sacks was also a devoted writer of letters. Edgar, who was Sacks’ editor, researcher, and friend, notes that the archive of his correspondence totaled roughly 200,000 pages (he kept copies of many of the letters he sent, and others were returned to his estate after Sacks’ death in 2015). The early chapters include letters to relatives and highlight his youthful travels and experiences; as he grows older he recounts his evolving thinking about his patients and their therapy. In his correspondence, he emphasizes the need to engage with patients and explore innovative therapies, including music and visual art. Sacks wrote to colleagues and friends as well as fans, often with a self-deprecating sense of humor. Along the way, he addresses his recurring depression and his addiction to amphetamines. Marshaling this mountain of words must have been a herculean task, but Edgar has managed to compile a collection that is coherent and, most of all, very enjoyable.

A lifetime of correspondence adds new dimensions to a brilliant mind’s oeuvre.