Across Conventional Lines ― Selected Papers of George A. Olah

Olah, whose career spanned the second half of the 20th century, has selected 250 of his 1,240 published papers, and arranged them in 28 sections, mostly topical, each of which he introduces. Because his interest has centered on compounds of carbon and hydrogen, he is generally considered an organic chemist, but he considers the division of chemistry into specialties to be artificial and counter-productive. Among his topics are general aspects of long-lived carbocation, aromatic and homoaromatic cations and dication, magic acid and superacid chemistry, halonium ions, and oxygenation and sulfuration. The two volumes are paged together, but not indexed. He includes a complete bibliography of his work and a list of his graduate students. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)