THE COMPLETE ANGLER : WRITTEN BY IZAAK WALTON.The Complete Angler, or The Contemplative Man's Recreation, that much loved classic on fishing, authored by Izaak Walton, (His name is also misspelled as Izzak Walton, by many people) was first published in 1653, after Walton had moved to Clerkenwell. He dedicated it to his most honoured friend John Offley. It is considered by many to be, not just an authority on the Art of Piscatorial pursuits, but as Charles Lamb said, it would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it. Since that first edition was published in 1653, there have been additions to The Complete Angler. In 1655 there came a second edition which contained many alterations and additions to the text, the number of chapters increased from thirteen to twenty one. It was followed by a third in 1661, which was re-issued in 1664, a fourth in 1668 and a fifth in 1676. The gentleness associated with Walton can be found in his instructions within The Complete Angler, when using live worms, grasshoppers and frogs. About the frog he said: "Use him as though you loved him, that is, harm him as little as you may possibly, that he may live the longer."
ABOVE: IZAAK WALTON PORTRAIT. The additions made as the work grew were not merely to the technical part; happy quotations, new turns of phrase, songs, poems and anecdotes were introduced as if the leisurely author, who wrote it as a recreation, had kept it constantly in his mind and talked it over point by point with his numerous brethren. There were originally only two interlocutors in the opening scene, "Piscator" and "Viator"; but in the second edition, as if in answer to an objection that "Piscator" had it too much in his own way in praise of angling, he introduced the falconer, "Auceps," changed "Viator" into "Venator" and made the new companions each dilate on the joys of his favourite sport. The Complete Angler was not Izaak Walton's first literary venture, but it was through his love of angling that he probably met Sir Henry Wotten, the ambassador to Venice. It was Wotten who had first intended to write the biography of John Donne, but not being an accomplished writer himself, Wotten left the project to Walton, who accepted and completed and published John Donne's life in 1640, much to the satisfaction of even the harshest critic. Not much is known of Izaak Walton's early years except that he was born in Stafford, where his baptism record gives his fathers name as Gervase. By the time Izaac had reached the age of three his father, an innkeeper had died. Apart from his mother remarrying about eighteen months later, again to another innkeeper, what happened to the boy is rather sketchy and vague. We do know, however by about the year 1612, at the approximate age of eighteen, he had moved to London to become an apprentice draper to one of his wealthy in-laws. Not long after he finished his apprenticeship, he acquired his own drapery shop on the north side of Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West. This business was to flourish and make him a very wealthy man indeed. It was at this time that he became a very close friend of the celebrated poet, John Donne, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral since 1621 and now the newly appointed vicar of St. Dunstan-in-the-West in 1624. This new friendship was to have a very profound effect on Izaak.In 1626 he married Rachel Floud (the-great-great niece of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer) author of the Book of Common Prayer. They had seven children, all of them dying at a very early age, followed in 1640 by Rachel herself, whose death is recorded in St.Dunstan's Parish register. He retired from his business in 1644, following the defeat of the Royalist forces on 2nd July 1644 and moved close to his birthplace in Stafford. By 1650 however he had returned to London, where he set up home in Clerkenwell, with his second wife Anne Ken, not far from his former premises on Fleet Street. Having married Anne not long after the death of his first wife Rachel, she too was to die in 1662, and was buried in Worcestor Cathedral. He died on 15th December 1683 aged 90 and is buried in Winchester Cathedral. The Greatest epitaph that can be bestowed on this most humble of men is that he is the author of The Complete Angler. The additions made as the work grew were not merely to the technical part; happy quotations, new turns of phrase, songs, poems and anecdotes were introduced as if the leisurely author, who wrote it as a recreation, had kept it constantly in his mind and talked it over point by point with his numerous brethren. There were originally only two interlocutors in the opening scene, "Piscator" and "Viator"; but in the second edition, as if in answer to an objection that "Piscator" had it too much in his own way in praise of angling, he introduced the falconer, "Auceps," changed "Viator" into "Venator" and made the new companions each dilate on the joys of his favourite sport. The Complete Angler was not Izaak Walton's first literary venture, but it was through his love of angling that he probably met Sir Henry Wotten, the ambassador to Venice. It was Wotten who had first intended to write the biography of John Donne, but not being an accomplished writer himself, Wotten left the project to Walton, who accepted and completed and published John Donne's life in 1640, much to the satisfaction of even the harshest critic. Not much is known of Izaak Walton's early years except that he was born in Stafford, where his baptism record gives his fathers name as Gervase. By the time Izaac had reached the age of three his father, an innkeeper had died. Apart from his mother remarrying about eighteen months later, again to another innkeeper, what happened to the boy is rather sketchy and vague. We do know, however by about the year 1612, at the approximate age of eighteen, he had moved to London to become an apprentice draper to one of his wealthy in-laws. Not long after he finished his apprenticeship, he acquired his own drapery shop on the north side of Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West. This business was to flourish and make him a very wealthy man indeed. It was at this time that he became a very close friend of the celebrated poet, John Donne, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral since 1621 and now the newly appointed vicar of St. Dunstan-in-the-West in 1624. This new friendship was to have a very profound effect on Izaak.In 1626 he married Rachel Floud (the-great-great niece of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer) author of the Book of Common Prayer. They had seven children, all of them dying at a very early age, followed in 1640 by Rachel herself, whose death is recorded in St.Dunstan's Parish register. He retired from his business in 1644, following the defeat of the Royalist forces on 2nd July 1644 and moved close to his birthplace in Stafford. By 1650 however he had returned to London, where he set up home in Clerkenwell, with his second wife Anne Ken, not far from his former premises on Fleet Street. Having married Anne not long after the death of his first wife Rachel, she too was to die in 1662, and was buried in Worcestor Cathedral. He died on 15th December 1683 aged 90 and is buried in Winchester Cathedral. The Greatest epitaph that can be bestowed on this most humble of men is that he is the author of The Complete Angler. 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