The polymathic neurologist, whose books, research, and clinical insights have helped countless people understand the deep and abiding mysteries of the human mind, announced the sad news in today's New York Times:
A MONTH ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out — a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it was discovered that I had a rare tumor of the eye, an ocular melanoma. Although the radiation and lasering to remove the tumor ultimately left me blind in that eye, only in very rare cases do such tumors metastasize. I am among the unlucky 2 percent.I have followed his career for decades, returning over and over to the compassionate and curious voice of a scientist with endless reserves of love and kindness who wrote so eloquently about his experiences in such books as "Awakenings,""The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat," and "An Anthropologist On Mars."