Update May 25th 2021 –
Our sincere thanks to all of you who participated in this project. The sale of all of Richard Bach’s memorabilia has been completed and there are no further items available from our collection.
However we may launch other Richard Bach-related items for sale on this website in the coming months, so we encourage you to revisit us again soon and see what we have available then.
The story behind our project will remain online for the foreseeable future, as will the list of items sold.
The Story
From 1998 to 2004 my family and I lived in a part of the home formerly owned by the author Richard Bach, in Winter Haven, Florida. My connection to that home actually started way back in 1978 and it’s a very long story as to how that all came about.
I’ll save you the agony of that narrative, and instead tell you what is relevant to the memorabilia shown on these pages, which may be of interest to you if you are a Richard Bach or Jonathan Livingston Seagull fan.
In the mid 1970’s the author Richard Bach, who was at the height of his writing career after publishing his best selling book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, sold his home in Florida to a couple who would later become my relatives, and moved to California.
He sold the home “lock, stock & barrel”, that is to say that he essentially walked out of his home with just some personal belongings and his numerous aircraft, and headed to Hollywood, possibly to help manage production of the movie “Nothing By Chance”, which was being put together at about that time. (The “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” movie had been released a few years earlier, in 1973.)
In his home in Winter Haven, he left behind tons of things that one might normally take with you when you moved house, including personal signed photographs on the walls, his personal furniture including his large and very heavy writing desk, abstract paintings that he had painted in the early to mid 1970’s, many books, and numerous other personal mementos related to his flying and writing life.
Many of these items stayed in the house for the next thirty five years, largely untouched by the new owners who were also aviators and felt that the items left by Richard lent an interesting atmosphere to the home and created talking points for visitors.
By 2011 (or was it 2010?) the house, which was a large complex structure of wood and metal constructed partly over the water in 1962 , had become a maintenance nightmare. The decision was made to tear it down and rebuild, and everything inside the house had to go. A good number of Richard Bach’s memorabilia items were kept by the owners, but others were offered to family members if they wanted them, and I was one of the recipients of some of these items.
Having lived in an apartment of the building for six years, I had become very familiar with some of the ‘Richard Bach memorabilia’. So when it was time to take the house down, I retrieved various items from what was available and have had them stored in my home ever since.
Now in 2019, after being widowed and living alone for a number of years and with my children moved on and out of the house, I have decided to streamline my life and let go of a lot of ‘stuff’.
Some of that ‘stuff’ includes most of the Richard Bach memorabilia which I have carefully stored all these years, and which I hope will find new homes and be appreciated by people who have a connection to this unique author.
All the items listed in The Collection section of this website, are being sold. These items have never been made available before, and they represent a unique opportunity for collectors and fans of this much loved author.
The going prices for these items will no doubt vary widely, and hopefully Richard Bach fans will be able to obtain something at a price level that matches their budget. Some of the items, the print photos particularly, are very faded due to 40+ years of exposure to light. When posted on eBay, many items will be listed with a low – or no – reserve price. I imagine that the original paintings by Richard Bach are the most valuable items in the collection.
A portion* of the proceeds of the sale of these items will go to a privately run orphanage in Kenya, the Hanne Howard Fund (HHF). This facility, which has nothing to do with Richard Bach, was founded and has been run by my late wife’s relatives for the past thirteen years. It is a project that was very dear to the hearts of my wife and her sisters. By making such a contribution to HHF I hope to do justice to these items themselves, and to the family memories that go along with them.
* = Please see the footnote for related information.
How to purchase an item:
Some items are placed on eBay on a regular basis, others can be purchased directly from this website. Please see the payment options in the description of each item.
Current Sales Status: As of mid May 2020, nine of the approx. nineteen available items have been sold. All sold items are clearly noted as such on the Collection page.
To post questions or discuss these items publicly, please visit the FaceBook page established for this purpose. Also check the Frequently Asked Questions page for typical questions, including shipping information.
You can learn more about Richard Bach via his Wikipedia page located here.
Thank you for visiting.
Paul Everitt,
Curator, RBMemorabilia.com
Port Orange, Florida, USA, April 24th 2019.
View the Collection here ->
* The more money we raise from the sale of these items, the larger the portion we can contribute to HHF after covering the nominal costs of putting this project together. The final amount contributed will be announced on this website after all items are sold.
Current Donations: To date (May 15th 2020) we have donated $463 to HHF towards our target of $2,000. That’s 23% of our goal! We appreciate your support.
Please note:
The RBMemorabilia project is a personal & private initiative created to distribute the items in the RBMemorabilia Collection. It is not a registered 501(c)3 charity charitable organization and we are not an “authorized fund raising organization” for the Hanne Howard Fund, nor do we pretend to be one. Our goal of donating a portion of the proceeds of the sale of items in the RBMemorabilia Collection to the Hanne Howard Fund, is solely a private initiative based on our past and current family connection with this organization. The total funds donated to HHF from the sale of the RBMemorabilia Collection items is shown on this page.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
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