Fans draw grief, and inspiration, from essay

Oliver Sacks wanted to be a “real scientist” — someone who worked in a lab and conducted experiments and submitted studies to academic journals.

But as the 81-year-old approaches the end of his career and his life, he will likely be remembered for his work as a writer rather than as a researcher. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the thousands of online reactions to an essay Sacks published Thursday, announcing that a cancer diagnosed in 2005 has metastasized in his liver, leaving him with months to live.

The essay was tweeted by writers John Green, Neil Gaiman, Susan Orlean and Joyce Carol Oates, actress Marlee Matlin, dozens of journalists and thousands of people far outside of the scientific community.

“Beautiful, eloquent statement . . . but so sad,” Oates wrote. “‘Everything ends too soon.’ ”

“Just read about your terminal diagnosis but am so inspired by your words — as always,” tweeted Matlin.

“What a heartbreaking and beautiful read from a hero,” said Atul Gawande, a physician and author of Being Mortal.

The breadth of the response is a testament to the impact of Sacks’s books, which dramatize his experiences working with patients with neurological conditions.

“Oliver Sacks is a great includer,” science journalist Robert Krulwich said in a 2013 radio show. “His descriptions in all these books are so full of feeling, he makes (his subjects) come alive. This is his legacy.”

Inspired by the 19th-century tradition of writing “clinical anecdotes,” Sacks’s 12 books — including Awakenings (1973) — dramatize his research in precise yet lyrical language.

Robin Williams, nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a Sacks-like neurologist in the movie adaptation of Awakenings, described the scientist as a combination of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Albert Schweitzer. “The amazing thing is, as big as he is and as strong as he is, he’s this very gentle and compassionate man. Who is brilliant,” Williams said.

Lately Sacks’s most frequent subject of study has been himself. In The Mind’s Eye (2010), a series of stories about patients with vision problems, Sacks describes his own treatment for ocular cancer with giddy intellectual interest. One scene depicts him confined to his hospital room while a radioactive chip is embedded in his cancerous eye, asking his nurse to bring him a set of fluorescent minerals for a potential experiment.

“Perhaps I could light them up by fixing my radioactive eye, my rays on them,” he wrote. “It would be quite a party trick!”