ABSTRACT
With his play What I Did Last Summer, A.R.Gurney relates a universal tale and theme while focusing on one family during the summer of 1945 in a resort spot on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. As he describes a young boy coming of age, there is much that is autobiographical in the piece. While confining himself to a specific example, Gurney is able to make sweeping comments about general truths. He alluded to this literary phenomenon in interviews with both Edwin Wilson and myself: “Start with a type and you get nothing. Start with an individual and you get a type. By being specific you can be universal” (personal interview Feb 11, 1992).
