54 American Fisheries Society 



It is the most charming pastoral in the English 

 tongue, of which Richard Le Gallienne speaks so feel- 

 ingly, "To keep this in his little library he had under- 

 gone willingly many privations, cheerfully faced hunger 

 and cold rather than let it pass from his hand ; * * * 

 perhaps, after Robinson Crusoe, the most popular of the 

 English Classics, * * * a pastoral, the freshness 

 of which a hundred editions have left unexhausted, a 

 book in which the grass is forever green and the shin- 

 ing brooks do indeed go on forever." Another lover of 

 old Izaak has very cleverly adapted the remark of the 

 celebrated Dr. Botteler of strawberry fame — "doubtless 

 a better angling book there might have been, but such, 

 doubtless there never has been yet." 



It is doubtful if there is another book in English save 

 "The Holy Bible" that has gone into so many editions. 

 At this date, 1915, there are over one hundred and 

 seventy different editions of "The Compleat Angler" 

 (this collection boasts of over one hundred and sixty). 

 Though the expression "Waltoniana" properly means 

 anecdotes and stories by or concerning Walton, it has 

 come by common usage to be understood as applying 

 in any way to the art piscatorial and one finds it so 

 used in the majority of the catalogs of booksellers deal- 

 ing in old and second-hand books. 



The story of the "First Walton" reads like a fairy 

 tale. The first that is known of the "Compleat Angler" 

 is a small advertisement in an old London newspaper, 

 "The Perfect Diurnal * * * From Munday, May 9, 

 to Munday 16, 1652," reading as follows: 



" The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's 

 Recreation/ being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, not 

 unworthy the perusal of most Anglers, of 18 pence price, 

 written by Iz. Wa." 



The author's name does not appear on the title page 

 until the fifth edition published in 1676. The commenda- 

 tory verses in the second edition, published in 1655, are, 

 however, inscribed to "Mr. Izaak Walton." 



