Woodward-Hoffmann's Stereochemistry of Electrocyclic Reactions: From Day 1 to the JACS Receipt Date (May 5, 1964 to November 30, 1964).
The publication in January 1965 of the first Woodward-Hoffmann paper, The Stereochemistry of Electrocyclic Reactions, ushered into organic chemistry both an explanation of the stereochemistry and "allowedness" or "forbiddenness" of concerted reactions and an impetus for untold numbers of research projects. In the current paper, details of the collaboration between R. B. Woodward and R. Hoffmann, from when they first met to discuss the solution to the "no-mechanism problem" to the date their first paper was received in the offices of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, will be discussed and analyzed. The primary focus will be on the historically relevant extant documents from the early 1960s. These include Hoffmann's laboratory notebooks describing his research, including his extended Hückel calculations used to explain and predict the stereochemistry of electrocyclic reactions. Drafts of the Stereochemistry of Electrocyclic Reactions paper and letters and notes by Woodward, Jerome Berson, and others will further illuminate the development of this first Woodward-Hoffmann paper.
Department of Chemistry, University of Richmond , Richmond, Virginia 23173, United States.
Jeffrey I
JI
Seeman