(photo copyright Russell Munson)
Richard David Bach was born June 23, 1936 in Oak Park, Illinois.
His family moved in 1941 to a little ranch north of Tucson, Arizona where they spent three years before ultimately settling down in Long Beach, California when Richard was eight years old.
Richard grew up in Long Beach — gazing through his homemade telescope; skin diving along the shores of Newport Beach; and making model airplanes in his backyard Quonset hut, dreaming of someday flying a real plane.
After graduating from Woodrow Wilson high school in 1954, and discovering he didn’t like college, Richard joined the Air Force.
He was an aviation cadet taking pre-flight training for three months at Lackland Air Base in Texas, then to Graham Air Base in Florida where he learned how to fly T-33s. At Williams AFB in Arizona, Richard became a Second Lieutenant and flew F-86Fs.
circa 1962
Leaving the Air Force in 1958, Richard returned, now with his wife, Bette, to Long Beach and took on jobs as: a draftsman, a mailman, and a freelance writer penning articles for Flying magazine.
His life would be irrevocably changed one night in 1959 as he walked home and heard a voice behind him say: ”Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” He turned around to find that no one was there.
Richard rushed back home to his apartment, a little bit frightened, and when he sat down at his desk, a full Technicolor movie played out in front of his eyes, showing the seagull’s story. Richard wrote down what he saw as fast as he could.
Unfortunately, the movie suddenly stopped midway through. Richard was left with an incomplete manuscript. He put it away in a drawer, where it would lie for the next eight years, when the ending just as suddenly presented itself to him and he completed the story.
The Cold War brought Richard back into active duty, spending a year in France from 1961 to 1962, flying F-84Fs in a war that could go hot at a moment’s notice. He became Captain Richard Bach during this time.
Writing about his time in France led to Richard‘s first book: Stranger To The Ground, published in 1963 when Richard was just 27 years old. It was a critical success.
Richard traded fighter jets for antique biplanes after returning from France, and worked as an editor, now, for Flying magazine in Manhattan, then later moving to their West Coast office in Beverly Hills.
A fan letter to Ray Bradbury in 1962 led to a lifelong friendship between the two men, and membership in Ray’s exclusive writers’ group, which met once a month in Ray’s Los Angeles basement. Richard would debut his Jonathan Livingston Seagull manuscript at these meetings.
(photo copyright Russell Munson)
Barnstorming and biplanes, however, were Richard‘s new obsession and his next two books, Biplane and Nothing By Chance, were devoted to these subjects.
In 1965, Richard moved his growing family (eventually growing to six children) to Ottumwa, Iowa where he worked for the Antique Airplane Association, while also devoting time to his passions: fixing up airplanes in his front yard; barnstorming the Midwest during the summers; and, of course, writing books.
Finally dusting off his Jonathan Livingston Seagull manuscript, he tried to get it published — only to receive 18 rejections. When, at last, it is published by Macmillan in 1970, now illustrated with Russell Munson’s photographs of seagulls in flight, it would become a worldwide best seller, selling 44 million copies (and counting) and be one of the top selling fiction novels of all time. The book has remained continuously in print for over fifty years.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull catapulted Richard to superstardom. He and Jonathan were even featured on Time magazine’s November 13, 1972 cover.
Divorcing in 1970, Richard continued barnstorming and eventually settled in Winter Haven, Florida. It was during this period he wrote his second bestseller: Illusions – The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. A semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional account of Richard encountering a mysterious man named Donald Shimoda while barnstorming one glorious 1970s Midwest summer.
Illusions would go on to sell over 10 million copies.
In 1977, Richard began a relationship with the movie star, activist, and businesswoman: Leslie Parrish. They married in 1981, and his next two books documented their relationship: The Bridge Across Forever and One. Both would become New York Times bestsellers.
Richard and Leslie moved to Orcas Island in Puget Sound in Washington state, eventually divorcing in 1999. Richard remained living on Orcas Island for the next two decades.
On August 31, 2012, Richard suffered a serious plane crash while flying solo in the San Juan Islands, which required a full year of recovery. He writes about his crash and recovery in his book: Illusions II – The Adventures of a Reluctant Student.
Richard has five living children: Robert, Kristelle, James, Erica, and Jonathan (who is named after the seagull). His youngest daughter, Bethany, sadly passed away in a car accident in 1985.
Richard currently lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife, Mindy.
