Richard Bach

Trivia

• Was associate editor of Flying Magazine 1961-64.
• Was a charter pilot, flight instructor, aviation mechanic, and barnstormer in and around Iowa during the years 1965-1970.
• Served to Captain in the U.S. Air Force 1956-1962.
• Won the Nene award for his book, "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" in 1970.
• Nominated for the American Book Award for "Illusions" in 1980.
• Wrote a script for the unproduced "Star Trek: Phase II" series that was cancelled in favor of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
• One-time airplane, tactical, and movie stunt pilot who later evolved into a heady, best-selling novelist ("Jonathan Livingston Seagull," "Running from Safety," "Out of My Mind").
• A great-great-great-grandson many times over of the classic composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
• Married first wife Bette and had six children, but divorced her and left his family because he didn't believe in marriage. One of his sons, Jonathan, later wrote the book Above the Clouds, which chronicled the "relationship" with the father he never knew.
• Sued the producers of the movie "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," based on his popular existential book, for altering the film without his permission. According to Bach's book, Bridge Across Forever, it was wife Leslie Parrish who served as some sort of moderator between the two parties to get an arrangement for the movie.