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The Island of the Colorblind

essay by Oliver Sacks

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2025
Entity authorityQ3819468 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Island of the Colorblind is a 1997 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks about achromatopsia on the Micronesian atoll of Pingelap. It was published in the UK as The Island of the Colour-blind. The second half of the book is devoted to the mystery of Lytico-Bodig disease in Guam.

The subject was also presented in an episode of the BBC documentary series The Mind Traveller.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Island of the Colorblind” as essay by Oliver Sacks. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Island, Colorblind and essay.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1997—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1997. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Island, Colorblind and essay providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Island of the Colorblind”, the useful work is to connect “essay by Oliver Sacks” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3819468. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  2. Expand the search: follow The Island of the Colorblind primary sources, The Island of the Colorblind archive and Island research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Island of the Colorblind” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.