The Last Perfect Summer

Harry Kirkland was a star shortstop in a small Western-Pennsylvania steel town where baseball was everything. Everyone in his home town eagerly followed this Little League hero’s career. Their adulation and loyalty convinced him that his life would continue on a golden road of success and good fortune. But Harry never fulfilled his dreams. Stricken with a bout of viral encephalitis and sent to live in a mental institution, he slowly faded away—brain-damaged, toothless, and void of hope. Until the day that Ted Tresh, Harry’s childhood friend, arrived at the hospital for a long-overdue visit. Armed with recollections of a simpler life, championship games, and lazy summer days, Ted takes Harry back to revisit their past, and reconnect with the boys they once were. "The Last Perfect Summer" is a nostalgic trip back to the 1960s—back to the days when a soda cost a dime and Mickey Mantle was every schoolboy’s idol. Back to a time when the innocence of youth allowed for any dream to come true.

Harry Kirkland was a star shortstop in a small Western-Pennsylvania steel town where baseball was everything. Everyone in his home town eagerly followed this Little League hero’s career. Their adulation and loyalty convinced him that his life would continue on a golden road of success and good fortune. But Harry never fulfilled his dreams. Stricken with a bout of viral encephalitis and sent to live in a mental institution, he slowly faded away—brain-damaged, toothless, and void of hope. Until the day that Ted Tresh, Harry’s childhood friend, arrived at the hospital for a long-overdue visit. Armed with recollections of a simpler life, championship games, and lazy summer days, Ted takes Harry back to revisit their past, and reconnect with the boys they once were. "The Last Perfect Summer" is a nostalgic trip back to the 1960s—back to the days when a soda cost a dime and Mickey Mantle was every schoolboy’s idol. Back to a time when the innocence of youth allowed for any dream to come true.

Ed Prence was trained to be a writer, but after receiving his Journalism Degree from Duquesne University in 1978, he struggled to support his growing family on a cub reporter’s salary. Turning to media advertising sales he became one of the top high-powered sales executives in the Northeast and earned his fortune over the next thirty years at radio and TV stations and cable systems from Boston to Pittsburgh. Along the way, he has written over 1,000 radio and TV commercials and won a Telly Award in 2000 for his work in Pittsburgh market advertising. Now retired at age 59, he has turned his talents back to his first love – writing. In The Last Perfect Summer, an inspiring sports and nostalgia novel, the author draws upon his experiences in the high-pressure world of media marketing, as well as his background in amateur sports, including four years as a Division I shortstop for Duquesne.