(The greatest classic of angling literature and a unique c...)
The greatest classic of angling literature and a unique celebration of the English countryside, Izaak Walton's IThe Compleat AnglerR was originally published in 1653 and first appeared with Charles Cotton's continuation in 1676. No book, apart from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, has been more often reprinted.
As a treatise on the art of fishing it has never wholly been superseded. For its advice on the catching and cooking of fish, the rules for baits, and the making of artificial flies, it remains a valuable and engrossing guide. As a graceful and affectionate portrait of rural England its charm is irresistible and in Walton and Cotton we could not wish for more congenial companions.
This illustrated edition, with an Introduction by the novelist John Buchan, has been expanded and revised by John Buxton.
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The Complete Angler of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton: Extensively Embellished With Engravings On Copper and Wood, From Original Paintings and ... Essay; The Linnæan Arrangement of The
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(The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653, but Walt...)
The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653, but Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse; 6 verses were quoted from John Dennys's 1613 work The Secrets of Angling. It was dedicated to John Offley, his most honoured friend. There was a second edition in 1655, a third in 1661 (identical with that of 1664), a fourth in 1668 and a fifth in 1676. In this last edition the thirteen chapters of the original had grown to twenty-one, and a second part was added by his friend and brother angler Charles Cotton, who took up Venator where Walton had left him and completed his instruction in fly fishing and the making of flies.
(The Compleat Angler, Izaak Waltons fishing classic, is a...)
The Compleat Angler, Izaak Waltons fishing classic, is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing. Through prose, verse, song, and folklore, Walton inspires readers to go into nature to go to its meandering streams and rivers and fish. Walton teaches us about a life filled with harmony between nature, man, and God; and a life spent in the company of friends and free from the hustle of the city.
Izaak Walton was an English writer, best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, a dialogue on the art of freshwater fishing. He was also the first professional English biographer of high stature.
Background
Walton was born on August 9, 1593, in Stafford, England. He was the son of Gervase Walton of Stafford, an innkeeper and a landlord of a tavern, who died before Izaak was three. His mother then married another innkeeper by the name of Bourne, who later ran the Swan in Stafford.
Education
Walton probably attended a local grammar school before settling with his sister in London. He was then apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Thomas Grinsell, a prospering seamster of London.
Career
On November 12, 1618, Walton was admitted to the Ironmongers' Company. By 1624 he was established in London as a cloth merchant, his shop was located in St. Dunstan's parish. Perhaps because many booksellers had shops near his, Walton developed literary interests. In 1619, a poem was dedicated to him and in 1633 his elegy on John Donne was printed with Donne's poems.
During the civil wars and the period of Cromwell's protectorate, Walton lived in Clerkenwell and on a small estate he owned in Staffordshire: he devoted himself increasingly to writing.
The last forty years of his long life seem to have been spent in ideal leisure and occupation, the old man travelling here and there, visiting his "eminent clergymen" and other brethren of the angle, compiling the biographies of congenial spirits, and collecting here a little and there a little for the enlargement of his famous treatise.
In 1653 Walton published his most famous book, The Compleat Angler; or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Ostensibly a book on fishing, the volume mingles philosophy and politics with directions for hooking a worm or catching a trout. It is filled with apt quotations, songs, poems, and anecdotes and gives one a full sense of Walton's personality - his gentle disposition, his cheerful piety, and his Anglican politics. The book was so popular with his contemporaries that it was expanded considerably and underwent five editions during Walton's lifetime.
After this time he seems to have made his home at Farnham Castle with Bishop George Morley. In 1665 Walton published his life of the great Anglican bishop of Elizabethan times, Thomas Hooker. Five years later Walton published his life of the Anglican poet and clergyman George Herbert. In 1678, at the age of 85, he published his last biography, a life of Bishop Robert Sanderson.
Walton died at Winchester, England, on December 15, 1683.
Walton's own observations were compared with scrupulously acknowledged information drawn from such authors as Gesner, Scala Johann Dubravius, and Bacon.
Personality
Walton's works show him to have been a kindly and religious man with a quiet sense of humor and rare common sense.
Interests
Walton’s enthusiasm for fishing gave him the keen eye of a naturalist his knowledge being particularly sound on a wide range of freshwater fish.
Connections
In 1626 Walton married Rachel Floud, a great-grandniece of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. She died on August 22, 1640. Her seven children had died in infancy.
In 1646 he married Anne Ken, half sister to Bishop Thomas Ken. His second wife died on April 17, 1662, leaving him with two small children.