WALTON, Izaak; Charles Cotton.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Complete Angler: or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation. First Hawkins edition. Westwood & Satchell note that "in this new edition, the original text was restored to its primitive purity; the pruning-knife was not resumed; all poetical tinkering was repudiated, and old Isaac's 'redundancies', 'superfluities', and 'absurdities', were brought back to light, and left to stand or fall on their own merits or demerits".This edition was edited by John Hawkins (1719-1789) and was "the first to have abundant annotations" (Horne). As noted by Satchell, it "came into competition with that issued by [Moses] Browne in the previous year, and gave rise to 'sundry skirmishes and passages of arms between the rival editors'". Satchell continues that "Browne's charges of plagiarism appear unfounded. The annotation is copious and has for the most part been retained in subsequent reprints". Horne notes that "like the Moses Browne edition of 1750, this first Hawkins edition may also have been inspired by Samuel Johnson, since the editor, Sir John Hawkins, was a member of the famous Literary Club organized by the great critic and conversationalist".

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