The Complete Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation by Isaac Walton. And Instructions How to Angle for a Trout or Graying in a Clear Stream by Charles Cotton With copious Notes, for the Most Part Original, a Bibliographical Preface Giving an Account of Fishing and Fishing-Books, from the Earliest Antiquity to the Time of Walton, and a Notice of Cotton and his Writings by the American Editor. To Which is Added an Appendix, Including Illustrative Ballads, Music, Papers on American Fishing, and the Most Complete Catalogue of Books on Angling, etc. Ever Printed. Also, a General Index to the Whole Work

Isaak Walton and Charles Cotton

Published by Wiley & Putnam, New York and London, 1847

About this Item

This is the first U.S. edition, a complete, sound, unrestored copy in the publisher's original illustrated green cloth, housed in a cloth-covered, leather-trimmed slipcase. Condition is very good overall. The original dark green cloth features a gilt vignette on the front cover, a gilt fish and print on the spine, and blind-stamped vignette to the rear cover, as well as extensive blind-stamped rules on the covers and spine. The binding is square and tight, with only slight color shift to the spine and no corner bumps. There is minor fraying to the cloth at the spine ends, upper rear hinge, and lower corners. The contents include three pages of advertisements bound in at the rear. The contents are bright with light intermittent spotting throughout, the small embossed device of "BRADLEY'S" - ostensibly a bookseller - to the upper right front free endpaper, and the previous owner name "Samuel Thompson" faintly inked to the recto of the blank preceding the half title. The rigid, gray cloth-covered slipcase with tan leather trim at the upper and lower opening is in fine condition. Walton's The Complete Angler was first published in 1653, though he continued to add to the work for decades. "Walton revised The Compleat Angler four times in his lifetime: in 1655, 1661 (with a second issue in 1664), 1668, and 1676. Its last edition was so much expanded from the first as to constitute almost a different text" and included additional material by Charles Cotton. "The Compleat Angler was conceived as dialogue between men travelling on foot who each represented a different recreation. In the first edition there were two, Piscator (fisherman) and Viator (traveller); in the second and much expanded edition of 1655 the two had become three: Viator was now Venator (hunter), and Auceps (falconer) was added. By this means the art of fishing was introduced, defended, and expounded: its strong precedent in the fishermen apostles of the New Testament was established, the detail of baiting for, catching, and cooking different kinds of fish was catalogued, and the whole was accompanied by aphorisms which would show the reader what it might mean to live well." Though The Compleat Angler was not, in Walton's lifetime (1593-1683), his most esteemed work, it has proven quite decisively his most enduring. It is, in fact, difficult to overstate the work's ongoing popularity; it has seen more than 400 editions since its first. According to some, The Complete Angler became one of the most-reprinted works in the English language, trailing only the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, and Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress.The text of this first U.S. edition contains a number of plates, facsimiles, and illustrations, some by John William Orr (1815-1887), an Irish-born American wood engraver who established one of the best-known engraving businesses in New York. Prominent among his work were the frontispieces of Harper's Illustrated Shakespeare.References: ODNB; Britannica.

Seller Inventory # 008516

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Complete Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation by Isaac Walton. And Instructions How to Angle for a Trout or Graying in a Clear Stream by Charles Cotton With copious Notes, for the Most Part Original, a Bibliographical Preface Giving an Account of Fishing and Fishing-Books, from the Earliest Antiquity to the Time of Walton, and a Notice of Cotton and his Writings by the American Editor. To Which is Added an Appendix, Including Illustrative Ballads, Music, Papers on American Fishing...
• Publisher: Wiley & Putnam, New York and London
• Publication Date: 1847
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First U.S. edition.
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