A short life of the author
Izaak Walton (1593–1683) was born in Stafford, the son of an innkeeper, and became one of the most beloved of all English writers through a single, unique book. The Compleat Angler (1653) is ostensibly a practical guide to fishing, but it is in reality a prose pastoral — a celebration of the quiet, contemplative life, of English rivers and countryside, of companionship and good conversation. It has been reprinted more than any English-language book except the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.
Life and Career
Walton moved to London as a young man and worked as an ironmonger (hardware dealer) in the parish of St Dunstan’s in the West, Fleet Street. There he became a friend of John Donne, who was vicar of the parish, and of other literary and ecclesiastical figures. He married twice and was widowed twice; his second wife was the daughter of Thomas Ken, later Bishop of Bath and Wells.
He was a committed royalist and Anglican during the Civil War. When Charles I was executed in 1649, Walton was entrusted with one of the king’s “lesser George” jewels, which he smuggled to safety — a remarkable act of loyalty for a retired ironmonger.
The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653. Walton revised and expanded it through five editions during his lifetime (the definitive fifth edition appeared in 1676, with a section on fly-fishing by Charles Cotton). The book is structured as a dialogue between Piscator (the fisherman), Venator (the hunter), and Auceps (the falconer), walking along the River Lea from Tottenham to Ware over five days.
His Lives — biographies of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Bishop Sanderson — are among the earliest English biographies and remain valuable for their intimate, anecdotal quality.
Walton lived to the age of ninety, dying at the house of his son-in-law, a prebendary of Winchester Cathedral.
Major Works and Themes
The Compleat Angler is about much more than fishing. It is a defence of the contemplative life against the active one, of rural peace against urban ambition, of patience and observation against aggression and competition. Its charm lies in its gentle, discursive style — recipes, songs, quotations, philosophical reflections, and practical advice tumble together in a companionable stream.
Critical Reception and Legacy
Walton has been continuously read and loved for nearly four centuries. Dr Johnson admired him. Charles Lamb called him “the best book in the world.” The Compleat Angler has been illustrated by every generation’s best artists and has given rise to an entire subgenre of fishing literature.
Key Works
- The Compleat Angler (1653; definitive 5th edition 1676)
- Lives (collected 1670)
Collecting Walton
The first edition of The Compleat Angler (1653, Richard Marriott) is one of the most important and collected books in the English language. Only a handful of copies survive in original condition; they bring $50,000–$200,000 at auction.
The fifth edition (1676, with Charles Cotton’s Part II) is the most desirable complete version: $5,000–$20,000.
The book has been reprinted in hundreds of editions, many of them illustrated and luxurious. Major illustrated editions — by Arthur Rackham (1931), Edmund Dulac, and others — are separately collected: $200–$2,000 depending on edition and condition.
Walton manuscript material is of the highest rarity and entirely institutional.