By the time the final episode of M*A*S*H aired on February 28, 1983, viewed by 50,150,000 viewers (a world record), it had little in common with the original novel beyond the names of a few characters. While the TV series was regarded as one of the finest examples of sensitive, socially relevant television, the original novel was a black comedy teeming with racist, sexist humor, and cruel pranks. M*A*S*H was written by Dr. H. Richard Hornberger under the pseudonym Richard Hooker, and published in October 1968. Hornberger was a surgeon who had worked in a M*A*S*H unit in Korea, and wrote a realistic novel, whose characters were very different from the ones we know today. Colonel Blake was a humorless Regular Army commander. Hawkeye was a crude opportunist who persuaded other surgeons to take advantage of their...