The poems in this volume were selected by the poet in 1978 from his first three books?A Run of Jacks, Death of the Kapowsin Tavern, and Good Luck in Cracked Italian?and from his three more recent books, The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir, What Thou Lovest Well Remains American, and 31 Letters and 13 Dreams.

Richard Hugo was for many years the director of the creative writing program at the University of Montana, Missoula Campus. He received the Theodore Roethke Memorial Prize and was twice nominated for the National Book Award.