... To the general public, what sticks is the book that started it. They'll ask, whatever happened to the guy who wrote that book about the sea gull? ....
At first, Richard Bach couldn't sell anyone his story of a sea gull dedicated to flying "for the joy of flying" and not just transport. "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" was short, precious and heavily inspiring. ("The gull sees farthest who flies highest.") It was universally rejected.
The Long Beach minister's son hadn't written it so fast either. He started it at age 23 in 1959, when the beginning appeared to him, mystically, "in Cinerama on my wall," and he "mulled it around" for eight years before the ending came to him. During that time, he did a lot of flying and a lot of writing, including three books about flying--flying airplanes.
Just when his agent advised him to drop this book about the bird, an editor at Macmillan who also flew planes and liked one of Bach's other books wrote to him. The result: Macmillan (which had once turned "Jonathan" down) did a first printing of 7,500 in 1970, and "orders kept coming in, with no promotion, all word of mouth," says Bach. "People were seeing things in 'Jonathan' that I had no idea were there."
"Jonathan" has since sold an estimated 30 million copies in 3 dozen languages. What's more, Bach had more books in him, and more bestsellers--from 1977's "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" to 1984's "The Bridge Across Forever" and 1988's "One." The last two sold a mere third of a million copies each--creditable but no "Jonathan." Almost all, says Bach, "use flight as a method to reach inside my heart."
He was also good at the TV shows and the tours. "I could talk about Jonathan," he says. "He was a dear, dear friend who could teach me a lot."
Unfortunately, he who flies highest also tempts fate. Bach, he says now, was "not anywhere near ready to live the consequences of the commercial success." He made millions, couldn't handle it and "did what many did, found a friend and said, 'You handle this.' " By the end of the '70s, he'd lost a fortune, owed a fortune in taxes and declared bankruptcy.
But like Jonathan, he has prevailed. With the help of his second wife, Leslie, whom he married in 1981, he got "extremely organized" and is now not just solvent but also very comfortable. He lives near Seattle and flies a para-glider--"the closest thing to real flight I've found."
Trying to strike a balance between "overexposure" and "keeping a hand in," Bach only occasionally gives public talks now. As for writing, "every book seems my last, until along comes one I can't run away from and I'm waking up at 5 a.m., writing notes."
Meantime, his 25-year-old son--Jonathan (of course)--will take a turn. Morrow, Richard Bach's current publisher, is about to come out with Jonathan's "Above the Clouds," a book about his relationship with his father.
(Excerpts from an article By S. J. DIAMOND, TIMES STAFF WRITER )
Singular
Sensations
Richard Bach, Marabel Morgan and David R. Reuben each wrote one
bestseller. Then, despite subsequent efforts, each slipped from
the limelight.
Los Angeles Times
Monday February 1, 1993
Home Edition
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