Dhruv Khullar on Oliver Sacks's "The Case of Anna H."

In 1999, Oliver Sacks, the eclectic neurologist who was dubbed the “poet laureate of medicine,” received a letter from a pianist, Anna H.

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“My (very unusual) problem, in one sentence, and in non-medical terms, is... I cannot read words, and music gives me the same problem.” Sacks was known for handwritten correspondence, but he called Anna—“this seemed to be the thing to do”—and invited her to his clinic. Her vision was fine, yet her condition, “visual agnosia,” was worsening. She soon struggled to recognize objects and even faces.

Like many of Sacks’s other stories, “The Case of Anna H.,” published in