MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors is a 1968 novel written by Richard Hooker (the pen name of former military surgeon H. Richard Hornberger) with the assistance of writer W. C. Heinz. It is notable as the foundation of the M*A*S*H franchise, which includes a 1970 feature film and a long-running TV series (1972–1983). The novel is about a fictional U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea during the Korean War.