Success of MASH
Hornberger worked eleven years on his debut novel, MASH, which was rejected by many publishers before he contacted the famed sportswriter, W.C. Heinz, to help him revise it. A year later, the book was acquired by William Morrow and Company. Ultimately, the book (released under Hornberger's pseudonym, Richard Hooker), proved amazingly successful. The novel quickly inspired an Academy Award-winning film released in 1970 and a widely popular television series that lasted eleven seasons. Hornberger reportedly did not like Alan Alda's portrayal in the TV series, although he viewed the original Robert Altman movie 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" (203).
Read more about this topic: Richard Hooker (author)
Famous quotes containing the word success:
“The story of Americans is the story of arrested metamorphoses. Those who achieve success come to a halt and accept themselves as they are. Those who fail become resigned and accept themselves as they are.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)