The Compleat Angler
The Compleat Angler (often modernised to The Complete Angler) is a book by Izaak Walton, first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot in London.
Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration, in prose and verse, of the art and spirit of fishing. The book was illustrated by Arthur Rackham in 1931.
Walton had spent his early life in Stafford, before moving to London in his teens. While the book initially describes fishing trips up the Lea Valley in Hertfordshire, it is thought to reflect Walton's own experience with fishing in the River Dove on the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
The book was published in the aftermath of the English Civil War, with Walton depicting "scenes of harmony" away from the political turbulence of his era. He disliked the Puritan regime of the 1650s, but the book contains only "muted comment" on politics and war. The book's first publisher Richard Marriot had a personal connection to Walton, because Walton was a personal friend of Marriot's then-retired father. The Angler was republished in new editions in 1655, 1661, 1668, and 1676. The last of these editions is an expanded version, with additional chapters written by Charles Cotton.
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- 2020-07-10T00:00:00.000000Z
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