WALTON, IZAAK (1593-1683). An English author. He was born in the Parish of Saint Mary, Stafford, August. 9, 159:3, and seems to have gone to London about DAL The belief al most universally expressed by biographers until recent years that he was a 'semester' or a linen draper is contradicted by the records of the Iron mongers' Company, which show that Walton was made a member of that company in 1618; and the license for his first-in:tillage in 1626 describes hint as an ironmonger. He was living in Fleet Street, London, in 1624. and the books of Saint Dunstan's Parish show that from 1628 to 1644 his home was in Chancery Lane, where Dr. John Donne was his friend and neinhbor. After a few years (until 1651) spent partly at Stafford and partly in visiting "the families of the eminent clergymen of England, of whom he was much be loved," he took up his residence probably at Clerkenwell, \viler(' he was living in 11h53, when the first edition of 'Thu rompleal Angler ap peared. When the Ilestoration was effected he made his home for the most part with Bishop Morley of \\ incliester and Bishop Ward of Salis bury, and died at Winchester, December 15, 1683.
Tbe YarliPst of \\ ;Ilion's writings that we have is "An Elegic," added to the 1633 edition of Dome's poems. When Donne's sermons were published in 1640 they were prefaced by a Life front Walton's pen, revised and separately pub lished in 1658. The affectionate intimacy of its tone, and its artless blending of simplicity, piety, and humor, well show why Walton was so lov ingly regarded by Wotton, 'Hales, Drayton, and other famous contemporaries, and give ample credence to Itoswell's statement that the book was a favorite of Dr. Johnson's. Similar in
spirit arc his biographies of Sir Henry Wotton (1651), of Riehard Hooker (1665), which was prefixed the following year to Hooker's Ece/csias tieul Polity, of George Ilerbort (1670), and if Robert Sandvrson (1678). Al( save the last ap peared in one volume in 1670. Yet the work fur which Walton is best known and loved is the most careless and least practical of all, The Cum pleut Angler, or the l'ontr»Ipla tire Alan's Reerca lion, of which Lam() ,aid, would ,4weettat a wan's temper at any time to read it." It is a rambling dialogue on all that pertains to time angler's art. charming in its pastoral freshness and the archaie quaintness of its style, and full of the gentle, kindly, sincere spirit of the man. It is of little value HOW in its intended function of a treatise, but will always live as a fishing idyll of great beauty. Appearing in five editions during Walton's lifetime, it has since been pub lished more than a hundred times; and the de mand for 'Walloniana' has given a high value to time earlier copies. A supplement upon fly-tishing_ by his close friend. Charles Cotton, was added to the fifth edition and now forums the second part of time work. Consult: Westwood and Satchel!. Bib/iothcca Piseatoria (London. 1883) : Slarston. and Some Earlier Writers on Fish and Fishing (ih,. 1894).