Steve Silberman, author of the prize-winning history of autism, Neurotribes

Silberman at the Hay literary festival in May 2016
Silberman at the Hay literary festival in May 2016 - Keith Morris/Alamy

Steve Silberman, who has died aged 66, was a science writer who became a tireless advocate for the rights of those with neurological differences, winning the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Neurotribes, his magisterial 500-page history of autism.

The seed for the book was planted when Silberman contributed an article for Wired magazine in 2001 headlined “The geek syndrome”. Examining the high incidence of autism in America’s Silicon Valley, it received a strong reader response. Hundreds of parents of autistic children – and autistic people themselves – wrote in, which led to a shift in Silberman’s perspective.

Whereas in “The geek syndrome” he had written in terms of a “plague… on the best minds of the next generation”, by the time he published Neurotribes his language had become far more positive. Public awareness of autism had progressed, to the point where advocates of “neurodiversity” were arguing that autistic people should be celebrated for their unique perspectives and their particular skills.

Silberman’s book featured the British psychiatrist Lorna Wing, who was the first to describe an “autism spectrum” of ability, and Temple Grandin, herself autistic, whose passion for animals led to a highly successful career as a designer of cattle handling systems.

On the other hand, Silberman was harshly critical of researchers such as Leo Kanner, who believed that autism was caused by neglectful parenting, and Ivar Lovaas, whose treatment centred on “extinguishing” autistic traits and behaviours. The most distressing passages of the book dealt with the so-called “euthanasia programme” instigated in Germany and Austria under the Nazis, which sanctioned the murder of disabled children in “special children’s wards” (Kinderfachabteilungen).

Neurotribes was praised both for the scope and depth of its research, and for its central message that autistic traits should be accepted. It was shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize and featured on the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. Silberman went on to speak at the United Nations for World Autism Awareness Day. At the time of his death his TED talk on the “forgotten history of autism” had been viewed nearly two million times.

NeuroTribes: praised for its central message that autistic traits should be accepted
NeuroTribes: praised for its central message that autistic traits should be accepted

Steve Silberman was born in Ithaca, New York, on December 23 1957, to Donald and Leslie. Both communists and anti-war activists, they named their son after Stephen Dedalus, the hero of James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and raised him on a diet of literature, reading Ulysses aloud to him when he was still an infant.

At high school he was badly bullied but found solace in poetry, particularly the work of Allen Ginsberg. He went on to study psychology at Oberlin, a liberal arts college in Ohio, and became Ginsberg’s apprentice at Naropa University in Colorado, where he also studied other Beat poets such as William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. After completing his master’s degree in English literature at Berkeley, California, he moved to San Francisco in 1979 in order to live what he later called “a gay life without fear”.

There he became part of the city’s counter-cultural movement, wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle and fell in love with the music of the Grateful Dead, writing liner notes for the band’s albums. In 1994 he co-authored Skeleton Key, a “dictionary for Deadheads”, with David Shenk.

By the early days of the internet he had gravitated towards writing about science and technology. In 1999 he was introduced to the writing of the neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose acute observations on the workings of the human mind impressed him.

Three years later he wrote a profile of Sacks for Wired and got to know him well. Sacks was gay but celibate, and Silberman gradually coaxed him into exploring his feelings about his sexuality; Sacks then spent the last six years of his life in a relationship with the writer Bill Hayes.

Sacks, in turn, encouraged Silberman to write a book. During the five years he worked on Neurotribes Silberman interviewed dozens of autistic adults and attended a conference run by and aimed at autistic people. Sacks called the finished work a “sweeping and penetrating history… presented with a rare sympathy and sensitivity”.

Throughout his career Silberman, who described himself as “hyper-neurotypical... kind of an extrovert, very social, very chatty”, was drawn to those he called “loners, programmers, science geeks, maths geeks”. He wrote of obsessive personalities in the world of jazz, of scientists making great strides forward in cancer research, and of individuals living with synaesthesia. At the time of his death he was working on a new book, due to be published next year, on the scientific advances that have transformed cystic fibrosis from a fatal childhood disease into a chronic but manageable condition.

On social media Silberman was known for his forthright opinions, particularly his opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency and his disdain for the anti-vaccination movement. In person he was warm and welcoming, generous with his time and open to new ideas. His friends included the singer-songwriter David Crosby, with whom he produced a podcast called Freak Flag Flying.

Steve Silberman is survived by his husband, Keith Karraker.

Steve Silberman, born December 23 1957, died August 28 2024