Neurotribes author Steve Silberman dies

Clare Drysdale, Atlantic Books partner publisher, stated: “Steve’s deep compassion shone via on every web page of NeuroTribes. He was extremely cautious and endlessly curious not to overstep in his uncommon duty as a neurotypical representative for the autistic community, a setting he pertained to as an outright privilege.

Atlantic Books and Allen & Unwin released a joint declaration sharing their “destruction” at the fatality of the “adored” author of NeuroTribes: The Tradition of AutismandHow to Believe Smarter regarding Individuals Who Think Differently.

Silberman won the Samuel Johnson Prize (now Baillie Gifford Reward) for non-fiction in 2015 for NeuroTribes. His publishers said it “totally reframed the way we talk about autism and neurodiversity and continues to be one of the most vital books we have published”.

NeuroTribes traced the secret history of autism, narrating the brave and lonesome journey of autistic individuals and their families through the centuries and finding shocking response to the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question of why the number of diagnoses had skyrocketed in recent times. It was shortlisted for the Wellcome prize and was both a Sunday Times and New york city Times bestseller.

Silberman had an adventurous life also prior to he became a scientific research reporter and writer. in his teens he hitchhiked from New york city to Colorado in the hope that his idol, Allen Ginsberg, would take him on as a pupil (which he did). He fell in love with San Francisco counterculture, relocating there to work with the poet Thom Gunn, and became prominent as a liner-note-writing specialist on the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills Nash & Young.