He was interested in chemistry at an early age. By the time he entered high school, he had already done most of the experiments in Ludwig Gattermann's textbook of experimental organic chemistry. In 1928, Woodward asked the Consul-General of the German consulate in Boston, to send him copies of a few original papers published in German journals. He was fascinated to read Otto Diels and Kurt Alder's original communication about the Diels–Alder reaction. 