Author Guide · Fiction · Fables · Flying
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Richard Bach, born in 1936 in Oak Park, Illinois, was a fighter pilot before he was a novelist: an F-84F pilot in the US Air Force reserve, deployed to France in 1960, then a technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and a barnstormer giving rides from farm fields. His first three books were about flying and sold modestly. The fourth, a short story about a gull that flies for the joy of it, was rejected by several publishers, came out in 1970 with a first printing of 3,000 copies, and by 1972 sat at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Everything he wrote afterwards uses flight to talk about freedom, belief and love. This guide covers his 11 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 1963–2014 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Richard Bach’s best-known book is Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), which sold more than a million copies in 1972 alone. His other key books are Illusions (1977), The Bridge Across Forever (1984) and One (1988). Start with Jonathan Livingston Seagull: it is short, and every later book builds on its idea.
Where to Start with Richard Bach
If you want his defining book
→ Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) — the 1970 fable about a gull who wants more than food.
If you want his ideas in novel form
→ Illusions (1977) — two barnstormers, one of them a messiah who has quit.
If you want the love story
→ The Bridge Across Forever (1984) — how he met the actress Leslie Parrish.
If you want the pilot before the guru
→ Stranger to the Ground (1963) — a night flight in a fighter jet across Europe.
11 Richard Bach Books, in Order
Stranger to the Ground
Bach’s first book follows a single night flight in an F-84F Thunderstreak from Wethersfield in England to Chaumont in France, during his Air Force service, with his thoughts on flying and duty woven through it. It was the best seller of his first three books, with 17,000 copies sold by 1972.
Biplane
An account of flying a 1929 biplane across the United States, a slow trip in an old aircraft after the jets of his first book. In 2003 it was reissued with his first and third books as Flying: The Aviation Trilogy.
Nothing by Chance
A summer spent barnstorming across the American Midwest with a small group of pilots, landing in hayfields and selling short rides to townspeople. It became a 1975 documentary of the same name about modern barnstorming, and the barnstorming life returns as the setting of Illusions.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
A young gull finds the flock’s focus on food empty and practises flying for its own sake until he is cast out; he reaches a higher plane, learns from an elder gull named Chiang, and returns to teach other outcasts. First serialised in flying magazines, it was published by Macmillan with photographs by Russell Munson, reached the top of the New York Times list in 1972 and stayed on it for 37 weeks. A 1973 film followed, with a soundtrack by Neil Diamond. The 2014 Complete Edition adds a Part Four that Bach had held back.
Illusions
A barnstormer named Richard meets Donald Shimoda in a Midwestern field: a messiah who has quit because people wanted miracles more than understanding. The two give biplane rides together, and Richard becomes his student. Shimoda carries a Messiah’s Handbook that opens at the page the reader needs; Bach later published it as a separate book.
The Bridge Across Forever
Bach writes as himself: a pilot barnstorming through the Midwest looking for a soulmate, who after the success of Illusions meets the actress Leslie Parrish. The book follows the two of them falling in love and the difficulties they work through. They married in 1981 and divorced in 1999.
One
Richard and Leslie, based on Bach and Parrish, find themselves in alternate worlds where other versions of them live: one in which they never married, one with no war where both are pilots in non-violent war games, one in which Leslie has died in a plane crash. Each version shows a choice they did or did not make.
Running from Safety
Nearing sixty, Bach is reminded of a promise he made at nine to write a book for the boy he was. Most of the book is dialogue with that boy, Dickie, about free will, fate and risk, mixed with memories of his childhood, his brother Bobby’s death from leukaemia and the end of his first marriage.
The Ferret Chronicles
Five short novels with ferrets as characters, starting with Rescue Ferrets at Sea and Air Ferrets Aloft from Scribner in 2002. Bach said the theme was that “wonderful things happen if we live to our highest sense of right.” The series was collected as Curious Lives in 2005.
Hypnotizing Maria
Jamie Forbes, a flight instructor, talks a woman down by radio after her pilot husband collapses in flight. When he hears she felt hypnotised into flying the plane, he starts to ask how much of life is shaped by what we are told to believe. It was his first new book after a ten-year gap.
Illusions II
A short sequel to Illusions, published after Bach survived a serious plane crash in 2012. The subtitle reverses the first book: the messiah is gone, and Richard is now the reluctant student. The same year he published the fourth part of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which he said the crash had pushed him to finish.
In What Order to Read Richard Bach
The books stand alone, but many share a narrator called Richard who is plainly Bach himself, so publication order lets you follow one life: the Air Force pilot of Stranger to the Ground, the barnstormer of Nothing by Chance and Illusions, the married man of The Bridge Across Forever and One, and the older writer of Running from Safety.
Read Illusions before Illusions II, and The Bridge Across Forever before One, which continues the story of Richard and Leslie. If you read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, look for the 2014 Complete Edition, which includes Part Four.
A reading path
1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)
2. Illusions (1977)
3. The Bridge Across Forever (1984)
4. One (1988)
5. Stranger to the Ground (1963)
Everything Else Richard Bach Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 9 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Collections, fables and later books
9
9 books · 1974–2018
- 1974A Gift of Wingsa collection of his shorter pieces
- 1979There’s No Such Place as Far Awaya short illustrated fable
- 2000Out of My Minda short novel
- 2003Flying: The Aviation Trilogyhis first three books in one volume
- 2004Messiah’s Handbookthe handbook from Illusions, issued as a book
- 2005Curious Livesthe Ferret Chronicles collected
- 2012Thank Your Wicked Parents
- 2013Travels with Puffsent to his publisher the day before his 2012 crash
- 2018Life with My Guardian Angel
The years · 1936–2014
Quick facts about Richard Bach
- Known for
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), the short fable about a gull who flies for its own sake, one of the bestselling books of the 1970s
- 1936
- Born in Oak Park, Illinois
- 1977
- Illusions
- 2012
- Survives a plane crash on San Juan Island
- 2014
- Publishes Part Four of Seagull
- Born
- 23 June 1936, Oak Park, Illinois
- Flying
- US Air Force reserve pilot of the F-84F Thunderstreak; deployed to France in 1960
- Worked
- Technical writer for Douglas Aircraft, contributing editor at Flying magazine, barnstormer
- Breakthrough
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull reached No. 1 on the New York Times list in 1972
- Married
- Four times, including the actress Leslie Parrish (1981–1999)
- Crash
- 31 August 2012, landing a SeaRey amphibian on San Juan Island, Washington
The red mark is 1970: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the book that made his name.
How Richard Bach Writes: Flying as Metaphor
“Flying is a metaphor for life,” Bach told The Seattle Times in 2002, and almost every book uses it that way. The flying itself is accurate, because he was a working pilot: the night jet flight of Stranger to the Ground, the grass strips of the barnstormers, the radio talk of a flight instructor in Hypnotizing Maria. The point is usually somewhere else, in what it means to leave the ground the flock stands on.
His central form is the teacher and the student. Jonathan learns from Chiang and then teaches Fletcher; Richard learns from Donald Shimoda in Illusions; in Running from Safety he talks with his nine-year-old self. Ideas arrive as dialogue and short aphorisms, which is why his lines are so often quoted on their own, and why critics from the start linked the books to self-help and positive thinking.
He also writes about himself under his own name, blurring memoir and fiction: the narrator of Illusions, The Bridge Across Forever and One is called Richard, and his wife Leslie appears as herself. The books are short, and most can be read in an evening. For writers with a similar mix of fable and spiritual search, see Authors like Paulo Coelho.
Frequently asked questions about Richard Bach’s books
How many books has Richard Bach written?
More than twenty, counting collections and short fables. The 11 key books on this page run from Stranger to the Ground (1963) to Illusions II (2014); the rest, listed below them, include A Gift of Wings (1974), Messiah’s Handbook (2004) and Travels with Puff (2013).
What are Richard Bach’s books in order?
Stranger to the Ground (1963), Biplane (1966), Nothing by Chance (1969), Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), Illusions (1977), The Bridge Across Forever (1984), One (1988), Running from Safety (1994), The Ferret Chronicles (from 2002), Hypnotizing Maria (2009) and Illusions II (2014).
Where should I start with Richard Bach?
With Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970). It is short, and the ideas in his later books start there. If you like it, read Illusions (1977) next.
What is Richard Bach’s most famous book?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. After two years of word-of-mouth sales it reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 1972, stayed on the list for 37 weeks and sold more than a million copies that year alone.
What is Jonathan Livingston Seagull about?
A gull who cares more about flying than eating. His flock casts him out; he keeps practising, reaches a higher plane where an elder gull, Chiang, tells him to “keep working on love”, and returns to teach other outcasts, including Fletcher Lynd Seagull, who carries on after him.
What is Part Four of Jonathan Livingston Seagull?
A short final section that Bach wrote with the original but did not publish. Set long after Jonathan has gone, it shows the gulls worshipping his teachings instead of practising them. Bach finished it after his 2012 plane crash, and it appeared in the 2014 Complete Edition.
Why did Richard Bach sue over the Jonathan Livingston Seagull film?
In 1973 he sued the producer and director Hall Bartlett, saying his screenplay had been changed without the approval his contract required. Mediation failed, the film was released with changes, and Bach’s name was removed from the screenplay credits. Neil Diamond’s soundtrack won a Grammy.
Who is Leslie in Richard Bach’s books?
The actress Leslie Parrish, his second wife. Their meeting is the subject of The Bridge Across Forever (1984), and she appears as herself in One (1988). They married in 1981 and divorced in 1999.
What happened in Richard Bach’s plane crash?
On 31 August 2012 his SeaRey amphibian, which he called Puff, caught power lines while landing on San Juan Island, Washington, and came down upside down in a field. He suffered a head injury and a broken shoulder and spent about four months in hospital.
Is Richard Bach still alive?
No death has been reported. He was born on 23 June 1936, recovered from his 2012 crash, and married Melinda Jane Kellogg in 2020.
Footnotes
- Richard Bach — Wikipedia
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull — Wikipedia
- Illusions (Bach novel) — Wikipedia
- Running from Safety — Kirkus Reviews
- Author turns to ferrets for meaning — The Seattle Times, 2002
- Seagull author injured in plane crash — NPR, 2012
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.”
— Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), the first line
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