OCEAN CITY – The author of a popular book series chronicling life in Ocean City is set to release his third and final installment this month.
Available online and in stores beginning Friday, “Ocean City Chronicles” will be the final book in Bunk Mann’s three-volume series about Ocean City’s rich history. Following the success of his first two publications – “Vanishing Ocean City” and “Ghosts in the Surf” – Mann said he is eager to share photos and stories from 1868 to present.
“It covers a lot of years of Ocean City history,” he said. “And that’s the idea of Chronicles.”
In 2008, Mann began interviewing Ocean City residents for a new book about the resort’s historical buildings. By the third interview, however, Mann realized there was more to the story.
“Originally it was going to be about all the old buildings that were washed down, burned down, torn down, and what replaced them …,” he said. “By the time I had done some of these interviews, I realized the story was really about the people, not the old buildings.”
In the six years that followed, Mann collected more than 170 interviews and more than 1,000 photos and postcards. And in 2014, “Vanishing Ocean City” was published.
“The first book signing was held at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum in September of 2014, and by March all 5,000 books had been sold,” he said. “So we ordered another 5,000 … Within another year-and-a-half, they were gone. It just started growing.”
By 2019, Mann had published his second book, “Ghosts in the Surf.” And when the COVID pandemic hit, he started collecting stories for his third and final installment.
“I really thought after the first book, I might run out of stuff,” he said. “That was 10 years ago, and I’m still going.”
Since 2012, Mann has contributed a weekly column about Ocean City’s history to The Dispatch in a “Vanishing Ocean City” series that features a photo and writeup each week. He said “Ocean City Chronicles” is a collection of the 285 most popular publications, as well as several interviews and hundreds of photos. The book includes the actual columns themselves that have been printed in the newspaper.
“In this book, they are laid out in chronological order, as it makes more sense for the readers to follow the story,” he said.
Copies of “Ocean City Chronicles” can be purchased through Mann’s website, vanishingoc.com, or at select locations in Ocean City, Berlin and Salisbury.
To date, Mann has sold about 20,000 copies of his works in nearly every U.S. state. Mann said he wanted to recognize book artist Paul McGehee, publisher Sandy Phillips and the roughly 400 individuals who contributed interviews and photographs for the series.
“My gratitude to all the people that have shared pictures and shared their time,” he said.
Mann will hold his first book signing over Memorial Day weekend on Sunday, May 28, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. He invites everyone to attend and purchase a copy of “Ocean City Chronicles.”
“I hope that readers will gain an appreciation for the history of Ocean City and appreciation for the people that built the town,” he said.
