Houben-Weyl Methods of Organic Chemistry was founded in 1909 and has had the goal of providing a comprehensive description of preparative methods, organized on the basis of the product functional group and the types of bonds made in building up that functionality. The 4th Edition was published between 1952 and 1986 and consisted of 67 volumes and 3 index volumes (Vol. I-XVI). The series was updated with 93 additional and supplemental volumes, the E-series (Vol. E1-E23), published between 1982 and 2001. The 4th Edition and Supplemental Volumes are an invaluable reference source for the synthetic chemist, because they present a comprehensive, critical evaluation of all literature from the very beginning whether published in primary, secondary or patent sources.

The purpose of volumes E23 o and E23 p is to provide the synthetic chemist with rapid access to the synthetic methods contained in the 163 volumes of the 4th Edition and Supplement Series. Use of this guide avoids the necessity of learning the elegant but intricate systems used to number the volumes and to organize the content into hierarchies.