imaginary earthly paradise, by 1938, from Shangri-La, name of Tibetan utopia in James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon" (1933, film version 1937). In Tibetan, la means "mountain pass."
Entries linking to shangri-la
Camp David
U.S. presidential retreat near Thurmont, Maryland, built 1939 as Hi-Catoctin, in reference to the name of the mountains around it; it was called Shangri-La by President Franklin Roosevelt, after the mythical hard-to-get-to land in the novel "Lost Horizon;" it was renamed Camp David by President Eisenhower in 1953 for his grandson, born 1947. The Camp David Accords were signed there Sept. 17, 1978.