In 1988 the University of Arkansas Press published Billy Collinsas The Apple That Astonished Paris, his afirst real book of poems, a as he describes it in a new, delightful preface written expressly for this new printing to help celebrate both the Pressas twenty-fifth anniversary and this book, one of the Pressas all-time best sellers. In his usual witty and dry style, Collins writes, aI gathered together what I considered my best poems and threw them in the mail.a After awhat seemed like a very long timea Press director Miller Williams, a poet as well, returned the poems to him in the afamiliar self-addressed, stamped envelope.a He told Collins that there was good work here but that there was work to be done before head have a real collection he and the Press could be proud of: aWilliamsas words were more encouragement than I had ever gotten before and more than enough to inspire me to begin taking my writing more seriously than I had before.a This collection includes some of Collinsas most anthologized poems, including aIntroduction to Poetry, a aAnother Reason Why I Donat Keep a Gun in the House, a and aAdvice to Writers.a Its success over the years is testament to Collinsas talent as one of our best poets, and as he writes in the preface, athis new edition . . . is a credit to the sustained vibrancy of the University of Arkansas Press and, I suspect, to the abiding spirit of its former director, my first editorial father.a