The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation Being a Discourse of Rivers, Fishponds, Fish and Fishing no unworthy the Perusal of most Anglers.

WALTON, Izaak. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 140933

London: George C. Harrap & Co Ltd, 1931.

Deluxe signed limited edition of Arthur Rackham’s wonderfully illustrated rendition of The Compleat Angler. Quarto, original publisher’s full vellum decorated in gilt, pictorial endpapers, illustrated by Arthur Rackham with 12 full-page color plates and 25 in-text line cuts. One of seven hundred and seventy-five numbered copies signed by Arthur Rackham, this is number 143. In fine condition. An exceptional example.

Though intended in part as a practical guide for fishermen, the lasting influence of The Compleat Angler stems from its qualities as a work of literature: it is arguably the best long prose-pastoral in English. This edition is based on the Richard La Gallienne edition of 1897, which, in turn, relies on the text of the fifth edition of 1676, the last to be revised by Walton himself. It is the first to be illustrated by Arthur Rackham, whose “fanciful imagination gave his illustrations instant recognition, and his dedication to illustration kept him in the public eye for 30 years” (Hodnett, 233).