Richard Bach

Richard David Bach
Born	(1936-06-23) June 23, 1936 Oak Park, Illinois. U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Genre	Aviation, Fantasy, Philosophy
Spouse	Sabryna Nelson-Alexopoulos (1999-present) Leslie Parrish (1977–1997) (divorced) Bette Jeanne Franks (1957-1970) (divorced) 6 children

Richard David Bach (born June 23, 1936) is an American writer. He is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-sellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, among others. Bach's books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. Bach is noted for his love of flying and for his books related to air flight and flying in a metaphorical context. He has pursued flying as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012 Bach was badly injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field.

Biography

Bach was born in Oak Park, Illinois.He attended Long Beach State College in 1955. He has authored numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), Illusions (1977), One (1989), and Out of My Mind (1999). Most of his books have been semi-autobiographical, using actual or fictionalized events from his life to illustrate his philosophy.

He served in the United States Navy Reserve, then later in the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th Fighter Wing, 141st Fighter Squadron (USAF) as a F-84F pilot. Afterwards, he worked at a variety of jobs, including as a technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and as a contributing editor for Flying magazine. He served in the USAF reserve, deployed in France in 1960. He later became a barnstormer. Most of his books involve flight in some way, from the early stories which are straightforwardly about flying aircraft, to Stranger to the Ground, his first book, to his later works, in which he used flight as a philosophical metaphor. Supposedly, he claims to be a direct descendant of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1970, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a story about a seagull who flew for the love of flying rather than merely to catch food, was published by Macmillan Publishers after the manuscript was turned down by many other publishers. The book, which included unique photos of seagulls in flight by photographer Russell Munson, became a number-one bestseller. The book contained fewer than 10,000 words, yet it broke all hardcover sales records since Gone with the Wind. It sold more than 1,000,000 copies in 1972 alone. The surprise success of the book was widely reported in the media in the early 1970s.

During the summer of 1970, Bach and his friend Chris Cagle travelled to Ireland, where they participated in flying sequences supporting Roger Corman's film Von Richthofen and Brown. Here they flew a variety of World War One aircraft of the Blue Max collection owned by ex-RCAF pilot Lynn Garrison. Bach originally met Garrison when he wrote articles for AVIAN, Lynn Garrison's aviation publication.

Richard Bach and Lynn Garrison with Helio Courier G-ARMU used for Von Richthofen and Brown, 1970

In 1973, the book was turned into a movie, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation. The movie included a soundtrack by Neil Diamond.

A second book, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, published in 1977, tells the story of the narrator's encounter with a modern-day messiah who has decided to quit.

Bach has retained a dedicated fan base throughout the years. During the 1990s, Bach appeared online at Compuserve, where he answered e-mails personally. Bach was interviewed on April 1, 2005 on Conscious Talk Radio, and this interview was replayed a few times in 2006.

Bach had six children with his first wife, Bette. Bette typed and edited most of Richard's aviation writings. They divorced in 1970. Bette Bach Fineman, who remarried, is also a pilot, and the author of Patterns, about her life as a pilot and single mother. Their son Jonathan is a software engineer and journalist, who wrote Above the Clouds about growing up without knowing his father, Richard, and then later meeting him as a college student. (Richard gave his approval, although he noted that it included some personal history he'd "rather not see in print"). Other children are Robert, a commercial airline pilot; Kristel; James Marcus Bach, a computer expert and writer; and Erika. His youngest daughter, Bethany, was killed in an accident at the age of fifteen in 1985.

In 1977 Bach married actress Leslie Parrish, whom he met during the making of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull movie. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books—The Bridge Across Forever and One—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept of soulmates. They divorced in 1997. Bach married his third wife, Sabryna Nelson-Alexopoulos in April 1999.

On August 31, 2012, Bach was injured in an aircraft landing accident on San Juan Island in Washington. Bach was landing his aircraft, N346PE, a 2008 Easton Gilbert G Searey that he nicknamed "Puff", at a private airport when the landing gear clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field about two miles from Friday Harbor, taking down two poles and sparking a small grass fire. The day after the accident, he was reported to be in serious but stable condition with a head injury and broken shoulder. Bach was hospitalized for four months and eventually discharged home. He reported that his near-death experience inspired him to finish the fourth part of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was originally published in only three parts. In December 2012, Publishers Weekly reported that Travels with Puff, the book Bach wrote about crossing the United States in "Puff", was turned in to his publisher the day before his accident. Travels with Puff was released on March 19, 2013.

Bibliography

• Stranger to the Ground (1963) Dell reprint (1990), ISBN 0-440-20658-8
• Biplane (1966) Dell Reprint (1990), ISBN 0-440-20657-X
• Nothing by Chance (1969) Dell Reprint 1990, ISBN 0-440-20656-1
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) Macmillan, ISBN 0-380-01286-3
• A Gift of Wings (1974) Dell Reissue (1989), ISBN 0-440-20432-1
• There's No Such Place As Far Away (1976) Delta (1998), ISBN 0-385-31927-4
• Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977), ISBN 0-385-28501-9
• The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story (1984) Dell Reissue (1989), ISBN 0-440-10826-8
• One (1988) Dell Reissue 1989, ISBN 0-440-20562-X
• Running from Safety (1995) Delta, ISBN 0-385-31528-7
• Out of My Mind (2000) Delta, ISBN 0-385-33490-7
• The Ferret Chronicles (five novellas):
  • Air Ferrets Aloft (2002) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-2753-0
  • Rescue Ferrets at Sea (2002) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-2750-6
  • Writer Ferrets: Chasing the Muse (2002) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-2754-9
  • Rancher Ferrets on the Range (2003) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-2755-7
  • The Last War: Detective Ferrets and the Case of the Golden Deed (2003) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-2756-5
• Curious Lives: Adventures from the Ferret Chronicles (2005) Hampton Roads Publishing Company, ISBN 1-57174-457-6

The book Curious Lives is in fact the above five Ferret Chronicles books collected in one volume, the only changes being changes to the titles of each of the five.

• Flying: The Aviation Trilogy (2003) Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-4747-7, Collected edition containing
  • Stranger to the Ground
  • Biplane
  • Nothing by Chance
• Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul (2004), ISBN 1-57174-421-5
• Hypnotizing Maria (2009), Hampton Roads Publishing Company, ISBN 1-57174-623-4
• Thank Your Wicked Parents: Blessings from a Difficult Childhood (2012), Rainbow Ridge, ISBN 978-193790-702-0
• Travels with Puff: A Gentle Game of Life and Death (2013), NiceTiger, ISBN 978-193777-703-6

External links

• Richard Bach official web site
• Richard Bach interview at Amazon.com
• T. Virgil Parker interviews Richard Bach in the College Crier
• A Richard Bach Fan Site, contains a bibliography, interview transcripts, and quotations (no longer maintained)