Somebody in Asheville, North Carolina doesn’t think too kindly of two-time U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
According to the proprietors of The Captain’s Bookshelf someone took a copy of Nine Horses by Collins from the shelf, brought it home, then proceeded to shoot more than 20 shotgun pellets from close range through the book. And if that wasn’t enough the book crook also “meticulously defaced in ink” the author’s portrait by adding a devil’s beard and mustache and blacking out the eyes before returning it to the shelf.
The bookshop owners believe “the culprit is not just an irate reader, but a disgruntled poet who may have been turned down in one of the many contests that Collins has judged.”
Book thief vents rage on laureate’s poetry with shotgun | Asheville Citizen-Times