Richard Bach

American spiritual writer (born 1936)

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Born 1936 · age 90United States

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50 languages
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Age
90
Born 1936
Known for
Jonathan Livingston Se…
1973

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

He wrote a novella about a seagull learning to fly, and it sold millions — not as children's literature but as a parable for transcendence that landed somewhere between self-help and metaphysics in the early 1970s.

Biography

About

Richard David Bach was born June 23, 1936, and began flying at 17, a hobby that became the metaphorical spine of nearly everything he wrote. Jonathan Livingston Seagull arrived in 1970 and became one of the decade's biggest sellers, followed by Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah in 1977, which did the same. His books were semi-autobiographical, using real or fictionalized events to argue that physical limits and death are illusion, not fact. He kept flying, and in late August 2012, on approach to Friday Harbor, Washington, his plane clipped power lines and crashed upside down in…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Richard Bach

Richard Bach

said1994

If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.

— Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit (1994)

Richard Bach

said1978

You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will die.

— There's No Such Place As Far Away (1978)

Richard Bach

said1978

Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.

— There's No Such Place As Far Away (1978)

Richard Bach

said1978