What was the real name of the author known as Richard Hooker who wrote the novel M*A*S*H?

The author known as Richard Hooker was H. Richard Hornberger, whose full birth name was Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. He used “Richard Hooker” as a pen name for MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, published in 1968.

Hornberger was a physician and former U.S. Army surgeon who served with the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. His experiences with the unit supplied much of the novel’s medical setting, dark humor, and irreverent portrait of wartime surgeons.

The book was written with assistance from writer W. C. Heinz and became the foundation for the 1970 film and the television series that premiered in 1972. Hornberger later wrote M*A*S*H Goes to Maine and M*A*S*H Mania under the same pseudonym.

A common mistake is treating Richard Hooker as the author’s legal name or assuming he was a separate novelist. “Richard Hooker” was the publishing name; H. Richard Hornberger was the real person behind it.