The Books

I never knew there were novels until fairly recently. As well as early movie adaptations. I always assumed it had started with the TV series.

Please keep us updated. Thanks.

Differences:
"Everybody Loves My Baby" (the fifth story) reveals that Dobie's father (Dobie calls him "the governor") is a newspaper editor in Koochiching County in far-northern Minnesota, rather than owner of a small grocery store (apparently located in the same town as S. Peter Pryor Junior College), as in the TV show. Also, his name is Arthur W. Gillis, rather than Herbert T. To compound matters, in the very next story ("Love of Two Chemists") his father runs a bakery.

As Shulman warned us in his Note at the front of the book, the stories have very little continuity!

In the very next story ("The Face Is Familiar But ---"), Dobie describes himself as having been "the senior-class poet of the Salmon P. Chase High School, Blue Earth, Minnesota." That's another real place, but it's in extreme southern Minnesota, as far as you could get from the aforementioned Koochiching County without leaving the state. While attempting small talk with his date's father in that story, Dobie says "Starve a cold and stuff a fever," which I believe is the opposite of one of Maynard's favorite sayings.

In the next story ("The Mock Governor"), Dobie mentions "Professor Pomfiritt’s political science class." The spelling may be a Kindle typo, but in any case that's another TV character who originated in the stories.

"Everybody Loves My Baby" (the fifth story) reveals that Dobie's father['s] ... name is Arthur W. Gillis, rather than Herbert T.

I must say, I'll be ecstatic when Dobie finally regains his late-teen ability to write well. Right now he ends a lot of lists with "... and like that," and is forever saying things like "should of" ("could of," "would of," etc.) instead of "should've" or "should have."

In chapter 4 (when Dobie is 15), Milton Armitage moves in across the street.

And (oh, be still, my heart!) in chapter 5 Dobie turns 16 and sometimes says "could have" (though other times he still says "could of"). Also, his mother's first name is revealed to be Winifred (AKA "Winnie"). So yes, I think the author is kinda sneaking up on the Dobie and the situation that we know from the show. OK, in chapter 7, Zelda Gilroy shows up (sitting next to him in class, of course), and a mere six weeks later she proclaims her love for him, stating that they are "victims of propinquity,” just like in the show (which is where I learned the word "propinquity").

The final two chapters find Dobie at ages 21 and 30. He meets the girl in the former and is (mostly) happily married to her in the latter.

Still no Maynard.