Nitration of anthraquinone-1-carboxylic acid (I) produced a mixture of 5-nitro (II) and 8-nitro (III) anthraquinones from which the desired 8-nitro isomer (III) was separated by fractional crystallization from ethanol and further purified by washing with toluene. Reduction of the nitro group of (III) with aqueous sodium sulfide gave 8-aminoanthraquinone-1-carboxylic acid (IV). Condensation of (IV) with acetone in the presence of NaOH furnished the dibenzoisoquinolinone system (V). After activation of the carboxylate group of (V) as the imidazolide (VI) upon treatment with carbonyldiimidazole, its coupling with N,N-dimethylethylenediamine (VII) afforded the target amide.