I was one of the six people most closely involved in the discovery of the first magnetic white dwarf in 1970, now 50 years ago. Thinking back on this event, I have realised that the discovery occurred when and how it did because of a series of lucky coincidences along a strange and winding path. In this paper I recount the events as I recall them, and reflect on how those unlikely coincidences helped us to succeed.
@article{arxiv.2008.01802,
title = {Reflections on the discovery of the first magnetic white dwarf},
author = {John D. Landstreet},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.01802},
year = {2020}
}