Cause of death Leukemia Name Richard Hooker Nationality American Role Writer | Other names Richard Hooker Occupation AuthorSurgeon | |
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Full Name H. Richard Hornberger Resting place Hillside CemeteryBremen, Maine Alma mater Bowdoin CollegeCornell Medical School Books MASH: A Novel About Thr, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, M*A*S*H Mania, MASH goes to Moscow, MASH goes to Paris Similar People Ring Lardner - Jr, W C Heinz, W E B Griffin, Larry Gelbart, Robert Altman | ||
Movies and TV shows MASH, Trapper John, M.D. | ||
Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. (February 1, 1924 – November 4, 1997) was an American writer and surgeon who wrote under the pseudonym Richard Hooker, a prominent English minister during the Reformation and theologian. Hornberger's best-known work was his novel MASH (1968), based on his experiences during the Korean War and written in collaboration with W. C. Heinz. It was later used as the basis for a critically and commercially successful movie (1970) and television series (1972–1983).
Contents
- Education and military experience
- Writing career
- Adaptations
- Sequels
- Hornbergers departure from the franchise
- Published works
- References
Education and military experience
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Hornberger attended the Peddie School in Hightstown. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he was an active member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. He went to Cornell Medical School and after graduation, served as a physician in the United States Army Medical Corps during the Korean War.
After the war, Hornberger worked for the Veterans Administration, qualified for his surgical boards, and went into private practice. He settled into practice at Broad Cove in Bremen, Maine.
Writing career
His experiences at the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital were the background for his novel MASH (1968), which he worked on for eleven years. MASH was rejected by many publishers. He worked with the famed sportswriter, W.C. Heinz, to revise it. A year later, the book was acquired by William Morrow and Company. Published under Hornberger's pseudonym, Richard Hooker, the novel was highly successful.
Adaptations
MASH was adapted as a film by the same name, directed by Robert Altman and released in 1970. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won for Best Adapted Screenplay.
A TV series was developed, that debuted in 1972 and ran for eleven seasons. Hornberger reportedly did not like Alan Alda's portrayal of Hawkeye in the TV series. Hornberger was said to have viewed the Robert Altman film many times, in which Pierce was played by Donald Sutherland.
According to John Baxter in A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, Hornberger "was so furious at having sold the film rights for only a few hundred dollars that he never again signed a copy of the book".
Sequels
Hornberger wrote the sequels to MASH, M*A*S*M*A*S*H Goes to Maine (1972) and M*A*S*M*A*S*H Mania (1977), neither of which enjoyed the commercial success of the original. While MASH was a fairly faithful reflection of Hornberger's service in Korea, his sequels, M*A*S*M*A*S*H Goes to Maine and M*A*S*M*A*S*H Mania, were diverse representations of the "Swamp Gang's" post-Korea activities in the fictional town of Spruce Harbor, Maine, from 1953 to the 1970s. Attempts to adapt M*A*S*H Goes to Maine into a film met with failure, perhaps because the characters in the latter books were independent of those developed on screen.
The sequels are characterised by gentle humour, stereotypical local characters, and a nostalgic look at Maine and its people through Hornberger's eyes. Throughout, the "Swamp Gang" prospers, gets its own way most of the time, and generally become more conservative as the years pass. The men play golf and are sometimes thorns in the side of "the summer complaints" (tourists) and local bigwigs.
Hornberger's departure from the franchise
A series of books based on the franchise were published in between M*A*S*H Goes to Maine and M*A*S*H Mania. They were credited to "Richard Hooker and William E. Butterworth", although they were written entirely by Butterworth. The characters travel to Moscow, New Orleans, San Francisco, Paris, etc. These were hastily written to capitalize on the TV show's popularity and were of dubious literary merit. The action was transposed to the 1970s so that people such as Henry Kissinger could be lampooned, but this would have made some of the characters quite old, if the descriptions in the first book were to be believed. For instance, Hot Lips would have been in her 60s, having been described as "fortyish" in the first novel.
After the success of his book and its screen adaptations, Hornberger continued to practice as a surgeon in Waterville until his retirement in 1988. He died at the age of 73 on November 4, 1997, of leukemia.