Describes investigations in three areas of aromatic chemistry, namely, the preparation and properties of aromatic organoboron compounds, the reactions of carbonyl compounds with aromatics, and the structure and synthesis of naturally occurring carbonyl compounds. The papers cover an extended period, from 1955 to 2003, during which time spectroscopic techniques developed greatly.  The early work did not have the advantage of modern NMR and MS techniques let alone X-ray crystal structure determination and had to rely on the limited structural information provided by UV and IR measurements.