Five Decades of Dispute: A Triptych. E. J. Corey

In the published version of his March 2004 Priestley Medal address, E. J. Corey stated “On May 4, 1964, I suggested to my colleague R. B. Woodward a simple explanation involving the symmetry of the perturbed (HOMO) molecular orbitals for the stereoselective cyclobutene/1,3‐butadiene and 1,3,5‐hexatriene/cyclohexadiene conversions that provided the basis for the further development of these ideas into what became known as the Woodward‐Hoffmann rules.” This current publication describes how Corey, based on his knowledge of the chemical literature and his own research activities, was well‐positioned to conceive of a frontier molecular orbital mechanism of electrocyclic reactions. Several disclosures revealing aspects of orbital control of concerted reactions were made by Corey during a Woodward group meeting in 1961 and, according to Corey, to Roald Hoffmann in April 1964. Details, as provided by Corey, of his May 4, 1964, meeting with Woodward during which he presented Woodward with the mechanism of what was later named “electrocyclic reactions” will be presented. Letters and emails written by Corey to Hoffmann and interviews conducted by this author with Corey, Hoffmann, Douglas and Linda Applequist, Albert Eschenmoser, Alfred G. Hortmann, Jos Schlatmann, and others provide further information regarding Corey's intellectual property claim against Woodward and subsequent interactions with Hoffmann.