Jonathan Livingston Seagull

The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself and learns everything he can about flying. His increasing unwillingness to conform finally results in his expulsion from the flock. Now an outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities while leading a peaceful and happy life.

One day Jonathan meets two gulls who take him to a "higher plane of existence" in which there is no heaven, but a better world found through perfection of knowledge. There he meets another seagull who loves to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him "pretty well a one-in-a-million bird." In this new place, Jonathan befriends the wisest gull, Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous self-education, and teaches him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe. The secret, Chiang says, is to "begin by knowing that you have already arrived."

But, unsatisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like himself to tell them what he'd learned and to spread his love for flight. His mission is successful, and Jonathan gathers around himself a flock of other gulls who have been outlawed for not conforming. The first of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, ultimately becomes a teacher in his own right, and Jonathan leaves to teach other flocks.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is named after John H. Livingston,[2] a Waco Aircraft Company test pilot who died of a heart attack at 76 just after test flying an acrobatic home-built Pitts Special.

The book was rejected by several publishers before coming to the attention of Eleanor Friede at Macmillan in 1969. She convinced Macmillan to buy it and Bach received a $2,000 advance.[3]

Several early commentators, emphasizing the first part of the book, see it as part of the US self-help and positive thinking culture, epitomised by Norman Vincent Peale and by the New Thought movement. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote[4] that the book was "so banal that it had to be sold to adults; kids would have seen through it."

The book is listed as one of 50 "timeless spiritual classics" in a book by Tom Butler-Bowdon,[5] who noted that "it is easy now, 35 years on, to overlook the originality of the book's concept, and though some find it rather naïve, in fact it expresses timeless ideas about human potential."

John Clute, for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, wrote: "an animal fantasy about a philosophical gull who is profoundly affected by flying, but who demands too much of his community and is cast out by it. He becomes an extremely well behaved accursed wanderer, then dies, and in posthumous FANTASY sequences — though he is too wise really to question the fact of death, and too calmly confident to have doubts about his continuing upward mobility — he learns greater wisdom. Back on Earth, he continues to preach and heal and finally returns to heaven, where he belongs."[6]

• A 1972 parody, Marvin Stanley Pigeon, was published by Thomas Meehan in The New Yorker: "Marvin Stanley Pigeon was no ordinary pigeon. While other pigeons spent their time grubbing for food, Marvin Stanley Pigeon worked away on his book on the window ledge outside the Manuscript Room of the Public Library in Bryant Park. He wanted to get his novel done in time for Macmillan's spring list."[7]
• Hubert Bermont wrote and published another parody, Jonathan Livingston Fliegle, with illustrations drawn by Harold Isen, in 1973. Its content contained many examples of Jewish humor.
• Another parody featuring Jewish humor, Jonathan Segal Chicken, was written by Sol Weinstein and Howard Albrecht. A self-proclaimed fable, it tells the story of a high-flying fabulous fowl who “dreamed of being more than soup.” It was published by Pinnacle Books in May 1973.
• Also in 1973, Price Stern Sloan published Ludwig von Wolfgang Vulture, a Satire by Dolph Sharp, a story about a vulture determined to push the limits on speed-reading.
• In 1998, a parody entitled Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon, written by David K. Lines, was published by Random House.
• 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.
• Jonathan Livingston's passion for flying is illustrated in the song "Martı" (Seagull) by Turkish singer Yaşar Kurt.
• Jonathan Seagull was the inspiration for the 1973 James Gang song "Ride the Wind".
• The novel inspired the Barclay James Harvest track, "Jonathan", written by Les Holroyd, from the band's 1975 album, Time Honoured Ghosts.[8]
• ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus found his inspiration in Jonathan Seagull when writing the 1978 song "Eagle".
• "Jonathan's Dream", a song by Sid Sound, is inspired by this novel. The song is featured on the dance simulation game Pump It Up Fiesta Ex.
• Children's arts charity The Flying Seagull Project is named after the novella.[9]
• Featured in the second season of the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here.
• The character is referenced in an episode of The Simpsons. In "The Mysterious Voyage of Homer", the Sea Captain exclaims, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull! We're on a collision course!"[10]
• The character Mike Brady in the 1995 parody Brady Bunch Movie, is reading the book while in bed.[11]
• In the 1980 film The Nude Bomb, Bill Dana plays a character named Jonathan Levinson Seigle.
• In Nina Simone's performance of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" at the 1976 Montreaux Jazz Festival, just after the mid-point she sings, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull ain't got nothing on me!"
• The animated television series Puppy Dog Pals features as a recurring character a seagull named Jonathan.
• In Part of Your World A Twisted Tale By Liz Braswell Scuttle's Great-Grandgull Jona claims her Great-Grandfather gets confused sometimes and refers to her as "Jonathan. Jonathan Livingston"
• Referenced in the chapter “The Corsican Brothers” by the titular character in Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack
• Referenced in Key and Peele skit "Prepared for Terries," in which the events of the work are reconfigured as a loose allegory of the sketch's own questions of conformity in the face of personal discomfort

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.

Bach had written the film's original screenplay, but he sued Paramount Pictures before the film's release because he felt that there were too many discrepancies between the film and the book. Director Bartlett had allegedly violated a term in his contract with Bach which stated that no changes could be made to the film's adaptation without Bach's consent.[12] Bach took offense to scenes Bartlett had filmed which were not present in the book, most notably the sequence in which Jonathan is suddenly attacked by a wild hawk (voiced by Bartlett himself). Ultimately, the court ruled that Bach's name would be taken off the screenplay credits, and that the film would be released with a card indicating that Bach disapproved of the final cut. Bach's attorney claimed, "It took tremendous courage to say this motion picture had to come out of theaters unless it was changed. Paramount was stunned."[13]

The Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album was composed by Neil Diamond and produced by Tom Catalano. It won the 1974 Grammy Award as Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. The album apparently also made more money than the film. The album sold two million copies in the United States,[14] 400,000 in France,[15] 250,000 in Germany,[16] 200,000 in Canada [17] and 100,000 in the United Kingdom.[18]

The Irish actor Richard Harris won a Grammy in 1973 for the Audiobook LP Jonathan Livingston Seagull.[19] To date Harris's reading has not been released on any other format. Versions read by the author, Richard Bach, have been released on LP, cassette, and CD.[20][21][22]