Simon Winchester, Author of 'The Professor and the Madman,' Has Died
3 comments
- Points8
- Comments4
–Rank now
#19Peak rank
1Days on list
38Score · 7d
Nov 10, 2026First seen
Rank · 7 days
On Hacker News
- Points
- 8
- Comments
- 4
- Submitted by
- benbreen
- Posted
- Nov 8, 2026
- Site
- nytimes.com
Story details from Hacker News ↗ · linked article on nytimes.com.
Trending history
Simon Winchester, Author of 'The Professor and the Madman,' Has Died was first seen on Hacker News · Front page on Nov 10, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 20 checks on 1 different day. Its best position was #19 of 30, reached on Nov 10, 16:24 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 10, 18:09 UTC.
Rank history
Position on Hacker News · Front page at every check (lower is better).
Last 14 days
Best rank per day (UTC).
19
Oct 28today
Metric history
Platform metric as reported by Hacker News.
From the discussion
A few top-level comments from Hacker News, shortened. Read the full thread on Hacker News.
Well, that sucks. He's one of my favorite authors. I recommend the audiobooks which he reads himself. I especially liked "The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World" and "Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic". But all of his works are great.
> Simon Winchester was born in London on Sept. 28, 1944. He was the only child of Bernard and Andrée Winchester (de Wael.) By some accounts, his father, a British soldier, was imprisoned in Nazi Germany at the time of his son’s birth. In interviews, Mr. Winchester has frequently suggested that, when he returned from…
Or "The Surgeon of Crowthorne" if you don't want the dumbed-down-for-the-US-market title. An important book; one of several that perhaps exists in part because of the room in the market that was carved out by Dava Sobel's Longitude.
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Hacker News 1 day, best #19
Questions
Is Simon Winchester, Author of 'The Professor and the Madman,' Has Died trending on Hacker News right now?
Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 10, 18:09 UTC, after 1 day of trending.
What is the highest rank Simon Winchester, Author of 'The Professor and the Madman,' Has Died reached?
#19 on Hacker News · Front page, on Nov 10, 16:24 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 15 minutes.
How long has Simon Winchester, Author of 'The Professor and the Madman,' Has Died been trending?
It was first seen on Nov 10, 2026 and has been on the list on 1 day (20 checks) since.
How much discussion did it get on Hacker News?
8 points and 4 comments; submitted by benbreen on Nov 8, 2026.