Softback. Navy leatherette cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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It is a pleasure to touch and feel this lovely book. A book which has been treasured throughout its life. 

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 a “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.

This is part of the esteemed Nelson Classics series published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, which was widely distributed in the UK during the 1930s and 1940s.

Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been collected under the title of Walton’s Lives.

Born at Stafford around 1593, Walton moved to London in his teens, where he worked as a linen draper. In the capital, he befriended the poet and clergyman John Donne. A Royalist during the English Civil War, Walton returned to his home county of Staffordshire, settling at Shallowford, following the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644. Though Walton had returned to London by 1650, his experiences at Shallowford provided material for The Compleat Angler: a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing, first published in 1653. Throughout his life, Walton published biographies of subjects including Donne and Henry Wotton. These were later collected as Walton’s Lives.

Walton’s literary admirers have included Charles Lamb and he gives his name to places and organisations in his native country, the United States, and Kenya. Walton left his residence at Shallowford to the local poor. It is now maintained as a museum to his legacy.