PREFACE: No period in the history of organic chemistry has been as dynamic and productive of research accomplishment as the twelve years between the completion of the first and present editions of this textbook. New reagents, new reactions, and extraordinary syntheses have been manifold. New techniques and new instruments for analysis and determination of structures, improved methods for theoretical calculations, as well as new junctures with physical, inorganic, and biochemistry, have made organic chemistry an enormously vital discipline.

But along with this “best of times,” there is a “worst of times” coming from the recognition that many widely used organic compounds are more toxic than previously suspected. Some are carcinogenic; some may be destroying the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects all life from the sun’s strong ultraviolet radiation; others are concentrated and persist in living tissue to as yet unknown effect. Nonetheless, our society has come to depend on synthetic organic chemicals, and we may ponder the fact that in just a few years the petroleum that makes so many useful organic compounds easily available will be in very short supply throughout the world.

It has been a real challenge for us to try to cover the elements of modern organic chemistry with sufficient breadth to anticipate the interests and needs of the future chemists, biologists, physicians, medical scientists, and engineers, who constitute the majority of those who study the subject, and, at the same time, give a balanced view of both its current accomplishments and difficulties. Our attempt has resulted in a large book that may appear unwieldy. Between editions, we often received suggestions from professors to write a book “covering just the material I need in my course,” but no two ever seemed to agree on what “the” material should be. Perhaps the discipline has now progressed in breadth and complexity that no simple short text can suffice, any more than the old-fashioned grocery store can compete with the supermarket to supply the diverse needs of a modern community.

To a degree, our book has a parallel to a supermarket because not only do we cover many subjects, we cover the important ones in detail. There is no intention on our part to supply just the right amount of material for some particular course of study. Instead, we intend to provide a broad enough range of topics to accommodate almost any desired emphasis or approach to the subject. More on our objectives with regard to different possible approaches to the study of organic chemistry is given in the latter part of Section 1-5 (p. 24). This book makes a substantial break with tradition in the matter of organic nomenclature. It was difficult to decide to do this because changes in this area are very hard to achieve, perhaps for the reason that they threaten the viability of what already is published and, indeed, even our customary forms of verbal communication.