2 Billy Collins first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988) to Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Billy Collins title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Billy Collins copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Apple That Astonished Paris — 1988 · University of Arkansas PressBilly Collins's first full collection, University of Arkansas Press, 1988, first printing (no later-printing or additional-edition statement on the copyright page); issued in both cloth and wrappers. The hardcover first is genuinely scarce given the small pre-fame print run. Includes 'Introduction to Poetry' and other later-anthologized poems. US true first; a pre-fame small-press debut and among the scarcest Collins titles, especially in cloth. No book-club edition; the crux is the scarce 1988 cloth first versus wrappers and the later (1996) reissue.
Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems — 2001 · Random HouseRandom House (New York) first edition, stated 'First Edition' on the copyright page with a complete number line ending in 1. Cloth in priced dust jacket. This is the breakout selected volume issued as Collins was named US Poet Laureate; it gathered new poems with selections from his earlier University of Pittsburgh Press collections. US true first and the 'first thus' for the new poems and the selected gathering. Signed copies are common but desirable. No book-club edition. Later printings drop the 'First Edition' statement and advance the number line.

More Poetry, Beat & Drama shelves: Caryl Churchill, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (credited as Charlotte Perkins Stetson), Claude McKay, David Hare, David Mamet.

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