PURPOSE: An organic polymer useful as an optical resolving agent having excellent properties, obtained by polymerizing or copolymerizing diphenyl-2-pyridylmethyl methacrylate as a principal structural unit.

CONSTITUTION: An organic polymer mainly consisting of structural units of the formula, or its copolymer. The monomer of the formula can be obtained by, for example, reacting methacryloyl chloride with the Na salt of diphenyl(2-pyridyl)- carbinol in tetrahydrofuran. Examples of the comonomers used in obtaining the above copolymers include triphenylmethyl methacrylate and N,N-disubstituted acrylamide. Among the above polymers and the copolymers, those having a rotatory power of either (+) or (-) and an optical activity can be used as resolving agents having excellent properties.