About the Author

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and the author of four books: Sleep Demons: An Insomniac's Memoir, Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood, The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy, and Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me (coming February 2017), and is currently at work on a new book Sweat: A History of Exercise.

A photographer as well as a writer, his photos have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Granta, The Wall Street Journal, and on CBS Evening News. His portraits of his partner, the late Oliver Sacks, appear in the recent collection of Dr. Sacks's suite of final essays Gratitude.

Hayes has been a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, the recipient of a Leon Levy Foundation grant, and a Resident Writer at Blue Mountain Center. He has also served as a guest lecturer at Stanford, NYU, UCSF, University of Virginia, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Reviews

Advance praise for The Anatomist "In his cunningly structured, beautifully written anatomy of Gray's Anatomy, Bill Hayes dissects the body's secrets, the lives of two great nineteenth-century explorers of those secrets-and some of his own obsession as well. A lovely book."
-Andrea Barett, author of Ship Fever "Bill Hayes has written a thrilling book that is simultaneously an autobiography, a biography of Henry Gray, a scientific essay on our human anatomy, and a heart-breaking elegy. I do not know another book like it."
-Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory "The Anatomist is many things: a study of the body after life has left it, a chronicle of scientists obsessed with the subject, and, in a heartbreakingly personal way, a memoir. It is also a reflection about how little was known about disease not that long ago. Finally, it is a biography of an anxious, neurotic, enormously sympathetic young anatomist from another time who changed medicine. This is a wonderful book."
-Robert M. Sapolsky, author of A Primate's Memoir "Hayes pays eloquent tribute to two masterpieces: the human body and the book detailing it. . . . [He balances] biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom, dissecting cadavers and marveling at each new discovery with prose both lucid and arrestingly beautiful."
-Publishers Weekly

Advance praise for The Anatomist
"In his cunningly structured, beautifully written anatomy of Gray's Anatomy, Bill Hayes dissects the body's secrets, the lives of two great nineteenth-century explorers of those secrets-and some of his own obsession as well. A lovely book."
-Andrea Barett, author of Ship Fever
"Bill Hayes has written a thrilling book that is simultaneously an autobiography, a biography of Henry Gray, a scientific essay on our human anatomy, and a heart-breaking elegy. I do not know another book like it."
-Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory
"The Anatomist is many things: a study of the body after life has left it, a chronicle of scientists obsessed with the subject, and, in a heartbreakingly personal way, a memoir. It is also a reflection about how little was known about disease not that long ago. Finally, it is a biography of an anxious, neurotic, enormously sympathetic young anatomist from another time who changed medicine. This is a wonderful book."
-Robert M. Sapolsky, author of A Primate's Memoir
"Hayes pays eloquent tribute to two masterpieces: the human body and the book detailing it. . . . [He balances] biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom, dissecting cadavers and marveling at each new discovery with prose both lucid and arrestingly beautiful."
-Publishers Weekly

Advance praise for The Anatomist
In his cunningly structured, beautifully written anatomy of Gray s Anatomy, Bill Hayes dissects the body s secrets, the lives of two great nineteenth-century explorers of those secrets and some of his own obsession as well. A lovely book.
Andrea Barett, author of Ship Fever
Bill Hayes has written a thrilling book that is simultaneously an autobiography, a biography of Henry Gray, a scientific essay on our human anatomy, and a heart-breaking elegy. I do not know another book like it.
Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory
The Anatomist is many things: astudy of the body after life has left it, a chronicle of scientists obsessed with the subject, and, in a heartbreakingly personal way, a memoir. It is also a reflection about how little was known about disease not that long ago. Finally, it is a biography of an anxious, neurotic, enormously sympathetic young anatomist from another time who changed medicine. This is a wonderful book.
Robert M. Sapolsky, author of A Primate s Memoir
Hayes pays eloquent tribute to two masterpieces: the human body and the book detailing it. . . . [He balances] biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom, dissecting cadavers and marveling at each new discovery with prose both lucid and arrestingly beautiful.
Publishers Weekly"

Advance praise for The Anatomist
"In his cunningly structured, beautifully written anatomy of Gray's Anatomy, Bill Hayes dissects the body's secrets, the lives of two great nineteenth-century explorers of those secrets-and some of his own obsession as well. A lovely book."
-Andrea Barett, author of Ship Fever
"Bill Hayes has written a thrilling book that is simultaneously an autobiography, a biography of Henry Gray, a scientific essay on our human anatomy, and a heart-breaking elegy. I do not know another book like it."
-Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory
"The Anatomist is many things: a study of the body after life has left it, a chronicle of scientists obsessed with the subject, and, in a heartbreakingly personal way, a memoir. It is also a reflection about how little was known about disease not that long ago. Finally, it is a biography of an anxious, neurotic, enormously sympathetic young anatomist from another time who changed medicine. This is a wonderful book."
-Robert M. Sapolsky, author of A Primate's Memoir
"Hayes pays eloquent tribute to two masterpieces: the human body and the book detailing it. . . . [He balances] biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom, dissecting cadavers and marveling at each new discovery with prose both lucid and arrestingly beautiful."
-Publishers Weekly

Advance praise for The Anatomist

"In his cunningly structured, beautifully written anatomy of Gray's Anatomy, Bill Hayes dissects the body's secrets, the lives of two great nineteenth-century explorers of those secrets-and some of his own obsession as well. A lovely book."
-Andrea Barett, author of Ship Fever

"Bill Hayes has written a thrilling book that is simultaneously an autobiography, a biography of Henry Gray, a scientific essay on our human anatomy, and a heart-breaking elegy. I do not know another book like it."
-Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory

"The Anatomist is many things: a study of the body after life has left it, a chronicle of scientists obsessed with the subject, and, in a heartbreakingly personal way, a memoir. It is also a reflection about how little was known about disease not that long ago. Finally, it is a biography of an anxious, neurotic, enormously sympathetic young anatomist from another time who changed medicine. This is a wonderful book."
-Robert M. Sapolsky, author of A Primate's Memoir

"Hayes pays eloquent tribute to two masterpieces: the human body and the book detailing it. . . . [He balances] biographical chapters with his own experience in the anatomy classroom, dissecting cadavers and marveling at each new discovery with prose both lucid and arrestingly beautiful."
-Publishers Weekly