The Mind of a Mnemonist - A little book about a vast memory

The Mind of a Mnemonist is a rare phenomenon--a scientific study that transcends its data and, in the manner of the best fictional literature, fashions a portrait of an unforgettable human being.
FOREWORD TO THE 1987 EDITION
Jerome S. Bruner
Since its first publication some twenty years ago, this "little book," as Luria called it, has become a classic, a classic in two senses. It has, for one, become a classic in the clinical literature on pathologies of memory and on the significance of such pathologies for our understanding of memory in general. That, in its way, was not altogether unexpected, for Luria had already emerged in those years as one of the most gifted observers of the effects of neurological disorders on the workings of the human mind. He has since taken his place, as it were, in the ranks of the greats: Hughlings Jackson, Sir Henry Head, Kurt Goldstein, and that small band of clinical neurologists who have so deeply enriched our understanding of aphasias, amnesias, apraxias, and kindred afflictions. And today we can better understand the psychological acumen of Luria's observations and insights, for our new knowledge of memory and its mechanisms have helped us recognize how much Luria in his time was a visitor from the future.