Izaak Walton

The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton

The Compleat Angler

By Izaak Walton

THE FISHING CLASSIC

The Compleat Angler (the spelling is sometimes modernised to The Complete Angler) is a book by Izaak Walton. It was first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot of St Dunstan-in-the-West, London. 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.

Walton was born in Stafford and moved to London when he was in his teens. The book was dedicated to John Offley of Madeley, Staffordshire, and there are references in the book to fishing in the English Midlands. However, the work begins with Londoners making a fishing trip to the Lea Valley in Hertfordshire.

The first edition featured dialogue between veteran angler "Piscator" and student "Viator", while later editions change Viator to hunter Venator and added falconer Auceps. Walton drew on an earlier work. 6 verses were quoted from John Dennys's 1613 work The Secrets of Angling.