"Grand Strand" & DUNNAGAN'S DICTIONYMS

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

GRAND STRAND

     The "Grand Strand" (similar to "grandstand," I guess) is not in RHHDAS,
DARE, and others.  It was discussed in a recent article in the Toronto Star,
3-21-98, pg. J2.  The writer states that "Grand Strand" is a nickname for the
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, and it was coined by a local writer on 3
December 1949.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
DUNNAGAN'S DICTIONYMS

    Early last year, I tried to locate Barry Buchanan's long lost, long
forgotten ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMUSEMENT WORLD.  I located Barry Buchanan's
papers in Carnegie-Mellon University, and I'll get to Pittsburgh one of these
days to check it out.
    Now there's DUNNAGAN'S DICTIONYMS.  I found out about it on my "coinages"
search, but an OCLC WorldCat search didn't locate the book in any library.
Was this book ever printed?  Does anyone know this guy?
    From UPI, 3 May 1987:

_Author challenges Roget with "Dunnagan's Dictionyms"_

     NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.--The South Carolina writer who long ago coined
the term "grand strand" is challenging your century-long mastery of "that
just-right word" with his monster-sized "Dunnagan's Dictionyms."
     "I think we have the most comprehensive book on everything under the
sun--including the sun," says Claude V. Dunnagan, newspaperman and
self-described hacker.  "There's nothing else like it in the world."
     After a quarter-century of delving into everything from technical
manuals to rock recordings, Dunnagan last month sent a final, 25-inch-thick
manuscript to the printers.  Release of the more than 1,000 page word-finder
is planned for September with a retail price tag of about $35.
     Dunnagan proudly predicts his 300,000-entry work--sub-titled "The
Totally New Instant Word-Finder of the American (English) Language"--will
replace those dog-eared volumes of the 135-year-old "Roget's Thesaurus"
alongside the typewriters of professional writers, especially the "hackers"
Dunnagan said will write about anything.
     "I wanted to find words that novelists or fiction writers could use
advantageously in their stories," Dunnagan said.  "I want to make it easy for
someone to write on a topic even though he's not that familiar with the
subject.
     "If someone wants to know how blacks talked in Charleston in the late
1800s, they can find all the words in my book.  There's nothing worse than
using particular terminology for the wrong time period."
     Dunnagan, who has written everything from television scripts to "Captain
Marvel" comic books, said the road to "Dictionyms" began about 25 years ago
as he set about writing stories of pirates and high-seas adventure.
     "I decided if I was going to write sea stories, I better compile a list
of nautical terms," he said.  "I surprised myself when I came up with about
25 pages worth."
     He later compiled working lists on aviation and other topics and put
friends to work in every discipline he could imagine.  He soon had so many
word lists that friends told him he should compile them into a book, leading
to the formation in 1977 of Syn Press Inc. to publish and market "Dictionyms."
     The final version, completed with the help of at least 15 researchers
and three proofreaders, lists 10 to 200 variations on each word listed in its
128-page index, Dunnagan said, and includes word lists on topics ranging from
computer technology to science to sex.
     In addition, Dunnagan said the book includes dozens of mini-biographies,
complete copies of important government documents and even a section on puns,
bloopers and spoonerisms.
     But the work won't end with publication, he said.  The book likely will
have to be revised about every 10 years "because the American language
evolves every minute."