Delphi Complete Works of Izaak Walton

by Izaak Walton

The seventeenth century Englishman Izaak Walton is the celebrated author of ‘The Compleat Angler’, a pastoral discourse on the joys and stratagems of fishing that has become one of the most frequently reprinted books of English literature. The unpretentious treatise, of which Walton declined to claim authorship on its first appearance, became a household book from the eighteenth century. Though many of its devotees have been fishermen, Walton’s engaging style in dialogue and description, his enthusiasm for innocent outdoor recreation and his love for the past have elevated ‘The Compleat Angler’ out of the category of handbooks into a unique status. Walton also wrote a number of short biographies, later collected under the title of ‘Walton's Lives’, which are now considered to be seminal examples of biographical literature. This comprehensive eBook presents Walton’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Walton’s life and works
* Concise introductions to the texts
* Two editions of ‘The Compleat Angler’: the first edition and the final fifth edition
* Features the complete ‘Walton's Lives’
* Includes ‘Waltoniana’, the author’s posthumously collected prose and poetical works
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables
* Features two biographies, including Andrew Lang’s famous introduction to ‘The Compleat Angler’ – immerse yourself in Walton’s world
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres

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CONTENTS:

The Books
The Compleat Angler
Walton’s Lives
Waltoniana

The Biographies
Izaak Walton by George Clement Boase
Introduction to the Compleat Angler by Andrew Lang

Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2018

About the author

Izaak Walton (c. 1594[1] – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies that have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.

Walton was born at Stafford c. 1594; the traditional '9 August 1593' date is based on a misinterpretation of his will, which he began on 9 August 1683.[1] The register of his baptism gives his father's name as Gervase. His father, who was an innkeeper as well as a landlord of a tavern, died before Izaak was three. His mother then married another innkeeper by the name of Bourne, who would later run the Swan in Stafford.

He settled in London where he began trading as an ironmonger in a small shop in the upper storey of Thomas Gresham's Royal Burse or Exchange in Cornhill. In 1614 he had a shop in Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane in the parish of St Dunstan's.[2] He became verger and churchwarden of the church, and a friend of the vicar, John Donne.[1] He joined the Ironmongers' Company in November 1618.[1]

Walton's first wife was Rachel Floud (married December 1626), a great-great-niece of Archbishop Cranmer. She died in 1640. He soon remarried, to Anne Ken (1646–1662), who appears as the pastoral Kenna of The Angler's Wish; she was a stepsister of Thomas Ken, afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells.

After the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644, Walton retired from his trade. He went to live just north of his birthplace, at a spot between the town of Stafford and the town of Stone, where he had bought some land edged by a small river. His new land at Shallowford included a farm, and a parcel of land; however by 1650 he was living in Clerkenwell, London. The first edition of his book The Compleat Angler was published in 1653. His second wife died in 1662, and was buried in Worcester Cathedral, where there is a monument to her memory. One of his daughters married Dr Hawkins, a prebendary of Winchester.

The last forty years of his life were spent visiting eminent clergymen and others who enjoyed fishing, compiling the biographies of people he liked, and collecting information for the Compleat Angler. After 1662 he found a home at Farnham Castle with George Morley, bishop of Winchester, to whom he dedicated his Life of George Herbert and his biography of Richard Hooker. He sometimes visited Charles Cotton in his fishing house on the Dove.

Walton died in his daughter's house at Winchester, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.