“Life bursts through all of Oliver Sacks’s writing. He was and will remain a brilliant singularity. It’s hard to call to mind one dull passage in his work — one dull sentence, for that matter.”
— The New York Times
Everything In Its Place
First Loves and Last Tales
“In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical ‘therapy’ to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.” — Oliver Sacks
A final volume of essays that showcase Oliver Sacks’s broad range of interests — from his passion for ferns, swimming, and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
Oliver Sacks, renowned scientist and storyteller, is adored by readers for his neurological case histories, his fascination and familiarity with human behaviour at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. Published posthumously in 2019, Everything in Its Place is a celebration of Sacks’s myriad interests, all told with his characteristic compassion, erudition, and luminous prose.
From the celebrated case history of Spalding Gray that appeared in The New Yorker four months before his death to reflections on mental asylums; from piercing accounts of Schizophrenia to a reminiscence of Robin Williams; from the riveting tale of a medical colleague falling victim to Alzheimer’s to the healing power of gardens, and, from; a critique of social media to the threat of climate change, this volume celebrates and reflects the wondrous curiosity of Oliver Sacks.
“I had stopped about halfway around to look at a charming gazebo by the water’s edge, got out and strolled up the street, saw a little red house for sale, was shown round it (still dripping) by the puzzled owners, walked along to the real estate agent and convinced her of my interest (she was not used to customers in swim trunks), reentered the water on the other side of the island, and swam back to Orchard Beach, having acquired a house in midswim.” — Oliver Sacks, Everything In Its Place
📷 Oliver Sacks at Oxford’s Botanic Garden, circa 1952. Photo by David Drazin
📷 Photo by Bill Hayes
📷 Photo by Bill Hayes
Praise for Everything In Its Place
“Extraordinarily touching—not lacking in his habitual energy and driven curiosity, but somehow vulnerable, even fragile . . . Our best chance for the future, we may feel, is that there may be others among us like this uncommon, passionate, and enlightened man . . .”—Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books
“In this lovely collection of previously unpublished essays, the late, celebrated author and neurologist muses on his career, his youth, the mental health field and much more. . . [this] final collection is a treat for the chronically curious.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“Eclectic and satisfying . . . Informative and engaging . . . Sacks writes with his characteristic compassion and attention to detail. . . This final posthumous collection provides one last peek into the author’s generous, curious, and brilliant mind.”—Library Journal
“Sacks further secures his legacy with this most recent collection of his work . . . The Shakespeare of science writing might suffice, but Sacks ultimately defies comparison to bygone or even contemporary authors. As readers we can rejoice that, while cancer may have claimed his body, his voice continues to ring out.”—The Scientist
“Everything in Its Place is a wondrous read in its entirety, irradiating Sacks’s kaleidoscopic curiosity across subjects. . .”—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
“Magical . . . [Everything in Its Place] showcases the neurologist’s infinitely curious mind.”—People Magazine
