Author Guide · Science Writing
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In 2001 Steve Silberman, a contributing editor at Wired, wrote “The Geek Syndrome” after people in the San Francisco Bay Area told him about what one called an epidemic of autism in the region. The article drew so much response that readers urged him to turn it into a book. The book that came out of it, NeuroTribes, appeared in 2015 with a foreword by Oliver Sacks, traced autism back to the eighteenth century and won Britain’s Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. Before that he had been Allen Ginsberg’s apprentice and teaching assistant, written liner notes for the Grateful Dead and co-written a dictionary for Deadheads. He died in San Francisco in 2024, aged 66. This guide covers his 2 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 1994–2015 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Steve Silberman published two books: Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads (1994), written with David Shenk, and NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (2015), which won the Samuel Johnson Prize. Start with NeuroTribes; below is what it covers, how it was received, and how it changed after new evidence about Hans Asperger.
Where to Start with Steve Silberman
If you want his defining book
→ NeuroTribes (2015) — the history of autism and the case for neurodiversity.
If you want the debate about how autism was diagnosed
→ NeuroTribes (2015) — Kanner, Asperger, Lorna Wing and the idea of a spectrum.
If you want the Grateful Dead world he came from
→ Skeleton Key (1994) — a dictionary of Deadhead language and lore.
2 Steve Silberman Books, in Order
Skeleton Key
An A–Z guide to the language, people, songs and rituals of the Grateful Dead and the fans who followed the band from show to show, written with the journalist David Shenk. Silberman was a long-time Deadhead who also wrote liner notes for several Grateful Dead albums and worked on the So Many Roads box set.
NeuroTribes
A history of autism from the eighteenth-century scientist Henry Cavendish to the online autistic communities of today, with a foreword by Oliver Sacks. Silberman contrasts Leo Kanner’s narrow, bleak view of autism with the broader picture that Lorna Wing and Uta Frith later helped establish, criticises figures such as Bruno Bettelheim and Ivar Lovaas, and argues for neurodiversity: that autistic minds bring strengths as well as difficulties. It grew out of his 2001 Wired article “The Geek Syndrome”, was named a best book of 2015 by The New York Times, The Economist and The Guardian, and was later updated after new evidence about Hans Asperger’s role under the Nazis.
In What Order to Read Steve Silberman
The two books have nothing to do with each other, so order does not matter. NeuroTribes is the one most readers come for; Skeleton Key is a reference book for Grateful Dead fans and is best dipped into rather than read straight through.
If you read NeuroTribes, look for a later edition: Silberman revised his account of Hans Asperger after historians published evidence in 2018 linking Asperger to the deaths of disabled children in Nazi-era Vienna.
A reading path
1. NeuroTribes (2015)
2. Skeleton Key (1994)
The years · 1957–2024
Quick facts about Steve Silberman
- Known for
- Steve Silberman is known for reframing the history of autism and popularising the idea of neurodiversity, first in Wired and then in NeuroTribes.
- 1957
- Born in Ithaca, New York
- 1977
- Hears Allen Ginsberg at Queens College
- 1994
- Skeleton Key
- 2001
- “The Geek Syndrome” in Wired
- 2015
- NeuroTribes
- 2024
- Dies in San Francisco, aged 66
- Born
- 23 December 1957, Ithaca, New York
- Died
- 29 August 2024, San Francisco, aged 66
- Education
- Psychology at Oberlin College (1979); MA in English literature, UC Berkeley, where Thom Gunn advised his thesis
- Worked
- Writer and contributing editor at Wired for more than two decades
- Honours
- Samuel Johnson Prize (2015); Kavli Science Journalism Award (2010)
- Husband
- Keith Karraker, a high-school science teacher
The red mark is 2015: NeuroTribes, his history of autism, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize.
How Steve Silberman Writes: History as Argument
Silberman worked as a magazine journalist first, and NeuroTribes began as a single Wired feature. The book keeps that habit of starting with people: much of it is told through individuals, from Henry Cavendish to autistic radio hams and science-fiction fans, before it turns to the clinicians who described them.
Its method is historical, but its purpose is an argument. He reads the archive to show how a narrow definition of autism, and blame placed on parents, shaped decades of treatment, and he ends with the neurodiversity movement and autistic self-advocates. Critics in the British Journal of Psychiatry and at Johns Hopkins said this sometimes made him too harsh on Leo Kanner and too ready to diagnose historical figures.
He was also willing to revise. When historians showed in 2018 that Hans Asperger had cooperated with the Nazi regime, Silberman updated the book, peer-reviewed one of the key papers, and said publicly that competition over priority had distorted how that history came out. For more science writers in the same tradition, see the guides to Oliver Sacks and Andrew Solomon below.
Frequently asked questions about Steve Silberman’s books
How many books has Steve Silberman written?
Two: Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads (1994), written with David Shenk, and NeuroTribes (2015). At his death he was working on a book about people with cystic fibrosis, which was not finished.
What are Steve Silberman’s books in order?
Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads (1994) and NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (2015).
Where should I start with Steve Silberman?
With NeuroTribes. It is his main work and the reason he is widely read; Skeleton Key is a reference book for Grateful Dead fans.
What is Steve Silberman’s most famous book?
NeuroTribes (2015), which won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction (now the Baillie Gifford Prize) and was among The New York Times’ 100 notable books of 2015.
What prizes did NeuroTribes win?
The 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize, the 2015 Books for a Better Life Psychology Award, the Medical Journalists’ Association Health Book of the Year (2016), a silver medal for non-fiction at the California Book Awards (2016) and the Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media (2016).
Who wrote the foreword to NeuroTribes?
The neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks.
Is Steve Silberman still alive?
No. He died unexpectedly at his home in San Francisco on 29 August 2024, aged 66. He was born in Ithaca, New York, on 23 December 1957.
Is NeuroTribes controversial?
Partly. The first edition portrayed Hans Asperger largely positively; evidence published in 2018 tied Asperger to the deaths of disabled children under the Nazis, and Silberman updated the book. Some critics also faulted its retrospective diagnoses of historical figures and its portrait of Leo Kanner, while reviewers in The New York Times Book Review and Science praised it.
What was “The Geek Syndrome”?
Silberman’s 2001 Wired article on autism in Silicon Valley, written after Bay Area residents raised it with him. The response it drew led him to write NeuroTribes.
Did Steve Silberman give a TED talk?
Yes. “The forgotten history of autism”, a 13-minute talk from TED2015, posted in June 2015.
Footnotes
- Steve Silberman — Wikipedia
- NeuroTribes — Wikipedia
- Steve Silberman, San Francisco science writer who pioneered autism rights, dies at 66 — J. The Jewish News of Northern California, 2024
- The legacy of Steve Silberman and his book NeuroTribes — The Transmitter
- Steve Silberman — TED
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“This whole experience has been a lesson to me in how competition for priority can distort the process of excavating history.”
— Steve Silberman, on the Hans Asperger revelations, quoted in The Transmitter (2024)
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