Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by American author Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in "Flying" magazine in the late 1960s. It was first published in book form in 1970, and by the end of 1972 over a million copies were in print. "Reader's Digest" published a condensed version, and the book 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.