Jonathan Livingston Seagull - A Story

Here’s a long, quirky and suitably philosophical Crappy Old Books version:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - A Story (1973) by Richard Bach – Turnstone Press

Most seagulls are perfectly content with the traditional career path.

Fly about.

Shout at things.

Steal chips.

Occasionally stand on a roof looking as though they personally own the coastline.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, however, has ambitions.

Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, published here by Turnstone Press in 1973, is the unlikely story of a bird who decides that ordinary seagull life is simply not enough.

Jonathan is obsessed with flying.

Not just getting from one place to another, but flying faster, higher and better than any sensible gull really needs to.

While the rest of the flock is mainly interested in food, survival and maintaining respectable seagull standards, Jonathan treats flight as an art, a discipline and almost a spiritual calling.

Naturally, this does not go down especially well.

Societies tend to become suspicious when one member suddenly announces that the traditional way of doing everything is terribly limiting and then starts performing experimental high-speed manoeuvres over the sea.

Jonathan’s refusal to behave like a normal gull leads to rejection, exile and eventually a much larger journey concerned with freedom, self-discovery, perfection and the somewhat dangerous idea that perhaps the limits everyone accepts are not really limits at all.

It is a very short book with a remarkably large amount of philosophy packed into it.

Part fable, part inspirational tale and part airborne existential crisis, Jonathan Livingston Seagull became one of the great publishing phenomena of the early 1970s, appealing to a generation enthusiastic about personal freedom, spiritual searching and questioning authority.

All delivered, importantly, by a seagull.

The central message is about individuality, self-improvement and pursuing what matters to you even when everybody else thinks you have become tiresome.

Which means Jonathan can be read as a symbol of personal liberation.

Or as an unusually intense bird.

Both interpretations are available.

The book is also beautifully suited to its photographic presentation, with images of gulls in flight giving the story an almost meditative quality.

There is something wonderfully sincere about the whole enterprise.

Modern readers may find parts deeply moving, gently mystical or gloriously 1970s, depending upon temperament.

Possibly all three.

It remains one of those books people remember because it asks a very simple question in a very peculiar way:

What if becoming better at something could also make you more yourself?

That is quite a burden to place on a seabird, but Jonathan manages surprisingly well.

This 1973 Turnstone Press edition has all the period charm of a book that belongs to an era when slim philosophical works could become enormous international bestsellers and nobody felt the need to turn the seagull into a twelve-part streaming franchise.

This copy is in Good condition, making it a pleasing vintage example for collectors, Bach readers, lovers of unusual fables or anyone who has ever suspected that ordinary life might contain rather more possibilities than advertised.

Also suitable for seagull enthusiasts who would like to imagine that the bird currently screaming outside the window is not after your sandwich, but is instead engaged in profound spiritual development.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where all seagulls are encouraged to fulfil their potential, provided they keep away from the packing area.

ISBN: 0855000015
Condition: Good

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