Editing Jonathan Livingston Seagull (section)

== Development ==
Bach initially wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in ''[[Flying (magazine)|Flying]]'' magazine in the late 1960s.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Bach, who said the book came to him as "a visionesque spooky thing", stopped after he wrote 10 pages and didn't pick it up again for a few years.<ref name="Jordan">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/books/review/jonathan-livingston-seagull-richard-bach.html |title=What Were People Reading in the Summer of 1972? |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Tina |last=Jordan |date=July 14, 2022 |access-date=July 18, 2022}}</ref>

The book was rejected by several publishers before coming to the attention of [[Eleanor Friede]] at [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]] in 1969. "I think it has a chance of growing into a long-lasting standard book for readers of all ages", she wrote in her acquisition memo. She convinced Macmillan to buy it and Bach received a $2,000 advance ({{inflation|US|2000|1969|fmt=eq|r=-3}}{{inflation/fn|US}}).<ref name="Jordan" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Grimes |first=William |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/books/25friede.html |title=Eleanor Friede, 87, Is Dead; Edited 1970 Fable 'Seagull' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2008-07-25 |access-date=2012-02-23}}</ref>

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is named after [[John H. Livingston]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livingstonaviation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=76|title=Our History|publisher=Livingston Aviation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103132023/http://www.livingstonaviation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=76|archive-date=January 3, 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=January 20, 2016|quote=John Livingston was an inspiration for the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull – 'to Johnny Livingston who has known all along what this book is all about.' – Richard Bach 1970}}</ref> a Waco Aircraft Company test pilot. Livingston died of a heart attack in 1974, at the age of 76, just after he had test-flown an acrobatic home-built [[Pitts Special]].

In the book ''The Nature of Personal Reality'' by Jane Roberts/Seth, page 55 of the paperback edition, Richard Bach was visiting Jane Roberts and stated that in 1959 he was walking beside a canal and heard a voice say "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". This puts into question the idea that the book was named after a particular person.