A collection of excerpts from letters written by R. B. Woodward to his friends, colleagues, young students and others is presented. These excerpts are representative of Woodward's lengthy correspondence and illustrate many aspects of his personality and philosophies of life.Keywords: Robert Burns Woodward, Organic synthesis, Philosophy of science, Biography, Sociology of science.
IntroductionThe year 2017 being the centenary of the birth of R. B. Woodward, it is fitting that several very recent publications [5 -7] and symposia [8 -10] honoring this great chemist have materialized. Woodward's scientific legacy surely is based on his structure determinations, total syntheses, and mechanistic theories, including the Principle of Conservation of Orbital Symmetry. [11 -13] He is also well known for his celebrity status, even for being a 'chemistry rock star'. [6] Anecdotes abound about Woodward's use of colored chalk and daiquiris in his multi-hour lectures, his love of blue, his snuffing out his cigarettes in flammable solvents, his aura of nobility, and so on (Figure 1). Woodward's publications were elegantly written, and several recent papers illustrate his use of the grand style of writing in those publications. [4] [ 14 -16] As legendary as Woodward remains, there is much about Woodward that remains little known. For example, Woodward's love of Switzerland, his close friendship with many Swiss or converted-to-Swiss chemists, and even the all-too-short lived Woodward Research Institute [17] in Basel, Switzerland, funded by Ciba AG are largely unknown. Of course, Woodward's [18 -25] But what about the private R. B. Woodward? Was all the above just a performance for his adoring fans, and the real Woodward quite someone else? We can obtain a glimpse of the real if also semi-private R. B. Woodward in his letters to both friends and colleagues, especially when we examine over 40 years of his correspondence. These documents can be studied to obtain a deeper and more thorough understanding of and appreciation for this unique chemist. These letters may be historically important, revealing a side of chemistry that is not obvious from the chemical literature and that would be lost without archival records. [26] Or these letters simply can be enjoyed as entertaining and good fun, which they are. Indeed, we can peek into the unpublished letters of R. B. Woodward as voyeurs might snoop around the belongings of a celebrity about whom much is known -but not quite enough.What follows is a collection of letters and excerpts from letters found in the Woodward papers in the Harvard University Archives. These were certainly not intended for the general public. Hence, they were not written with posterity in mind. Rather, they were momentary diversions from Woodward's research focus, workplace tasks that only he could do and not assignable to his reliable and ever-present secretary Dolores Dyer (more on her in the sequel).This correspondence was required for the maintenance of Woodward's professional life, just as one brush...
