Bianca Nicole A.

Pineda
9 – Berzelius G13

Facts about Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was written by Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell
Munson.
It is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight.
It is also a homily about self-perfection.
Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in Flying magazine in the
late 1960s.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull was first published in book form in 1970.
By the end of 1972 over a million copies of the book were in print.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list
where it remained for 37 weeks.
In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in
the United States.
In 2014 the book was reissued as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition,
which added a 17-page fourth part to the story.
The book was mentioned frequently by Newfoundland businessman Geoff Stirling, who
incorporated elements of the book into station graphics and overnight programming for
his television channel CJON-DT.
Children's arts charity The Flying Seagull Project is named after the novella.
The novella inspired the production of a film of the same title, with a soundtrack by Neil
Diamond.
The film was made by Hall Bartlett many years before computer-generated effects were
available. In order to make seagulls act on cue and perform aerobatics, Mark Smith of
Escondido, California built radio-controlled gliders that looked like real seagulls from a
few feet away.