A new and powerful approach to the synthesis of complex organic molecules. First part of this book presents the general principles of synthetic problemsolving, including the method of systematic retrosynthetic analysis, and the concurrent use of multiple independent strategies. Second part provides details of many specific syntheses, all of which have been tested in the lab. Third part comprises a comprehensive guide to the literature of multistep synthesis. Includes information on more than six hundred molecules that have been synthesized. Contains many flow charts and over two thousand references.