- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins (30 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060929316
- ISBN-13: 978-0060929312
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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"James Prosek's third book, "The Complete Angler, will enhance his growing reputation as a writer-painter. His story of his quest for Izaak Walton has a wonderful freshness and immediacy, eloquent and life-affirming.-- Harold Bloom, author of "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human"James Prosek got a Yale fellowship to go fishing! That itself is a work of genius, and the book he wrote about it is another. Yale paid him to go fishing! Oh, that our universities should be always so useful and so wise." -- P.J. O'Rourke, author of "Eat the Rich"What a graceful young writer James Prosek is! You don't have to be an angler to enjoy his wonderful adventures in England. His book is savvy and generous in spirit."-- Bill Barich, author of "Crazy for Rivers"James Prosek is a national treasure. His return to the streams and villages of Isaak Walton is a lesson in life, nature and the essential goodness of a contemplative existence. I loved it." ---- Tom Brokaw"If you're hooked on the sport, we recommend the latest work by this 23-year-old Yale graduate, who has won a large following with his watercolor-illustrated fishing books. In this effort, Mr. Prosek puts himself on the trail of Izaak Walton, famed author of "The Complete Angler."-- "The Wall Street Journal"brims with the enthusiasm of a young writer finding his way. This fresh approach to something centuries old makes the book entitled to a turn off the shelf."-- J. Taylor Buckley, "USA Today
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
"Izaak Walton was my excuse to go to England. I had been thinking through ideas to get money from Yale in the form of a traveling fellowship for two years, and several attempts had failed. My last--and best--idea was to suggest to the fellowship committee that I go to England and fish in the footsteps of a legitimate seventeenth-century author, Izaak Walton, who wrote "The Compleat Angler, " the third most frequently reprinted book in the English language, one that has been in print for over three hundred years. I told them during my interview that Walton's words spoke to me, that fishing was my passion, and that his book represented and defended every facet of the art more lucidly than I ever could." -- James Prosek
James Prosek has been called "the Audubon of the fishing world" by the "New York Times." A passionate fisherman and talented artist from a young age, he published two illustrated books on fish and fishing while still an undergraduate at Yale. After winning a traveling fellowship to follow in the footsteps of Izaak Walton, "The Compleat Angler" became his obsession. He was fascinated by Walton, a humble man who won the friendship of kings, and he was intrigued by the book's philosophies concerning the timelessness and immortality that could be achieved by fishing. Although Walton was sixty when "The Compleat Angler" was published and Prosek only twenty when he set off to visit England, they each had traits in common: a love of fishing and an extraordinary ability to make friends.
This is thestory of a young man's pilgrimage through England, fishing the waters that are now privately held. Along with wonderful stories about good times, great fishing, and fine eating, this trip becomes an exploration of Waltonian ideals: how to live with humor, wisdom, contentment, and simplicity.
The original watercolors complementing the text are wonderful. Like Walton's book, "The Complete Angler" is "not" about fishing but about life. Or rather, it "is" about fishing--but fishing is life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Many of the discoveries and advances that have surfaced along the river of my life have been serendipitous consequences of my passion for fishing. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Many of the discoveries and advances that have surfaced along the river of my life have been serendipitous consequences of my passion for fishing. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
James Prosek has crafted three books around trout fishing. I'm not a fisherwoman, I'm a birdwatcher, card carrying enviro-lobbyist with complex affinities for hunting and fishing. I bought his first book because he was supporting a cause I cared about and it was a pleasure to look at. Prozek's renderings of trout are jewel toned. Fascination will strip away all pretensions because it feeds so greedily. Hypersensitive, you seek all nourishment to supplement the core hunger. James Prozek in his youth celebrates his fascination for trout, and the art of troutfishing. I am now trying to learn how to watch fish. The Compleat Angler: A Connecticut Yankee Follows in the Footsteps of Walton finds Prozek searching further. He's looking for his place in space, senses heightened by his passion for troutfishing and the need to make his way in the world. His affinity with Izzak Walton is natural. Izzak Walton, in uncertain times (17th century England) used his fascination for fishing to make sense of his world. This book is savory with the manchild's gleanings of people and life in a familiar foreign land. It's a good thing he is in love with life, because he notices so many things: food, architecture, gardens, dairy maid, weather and people with a generous spirit. The book is fun to read because he is always 'there' - diffident and cocky, smart and rueful, testing and accepting. History and always fishing provide the backdrop to each vignette...encounters that inevitably lead to the next pool. The book's few faults have to do with the youth of the author, so they really can't be faults now. Prozek works hard and is productive. His watercolors are gorgeous. He is growing and I will watch for his future boooks as benchmarks. Spend some time with this young man; stray with him. Reaffirm that the nature around us is the foundation for the condition of all things human.
Format:Hardcover
Having read Prosek's other two books (and having thoroughly enjoyed them, and given copies as gifts), I really look forward to reading this one - long anticipated. This young man has unusual talents, and (at least as of a couple of years ago) possesses another rare quality today - humility and politeness.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Let's face it, this is not a very good book. There is a tendency among those who fly fish to readily accept any ink put to paper as elegaic, contemplative and downright superior. Young Mr. Prosek is a fortunate lad, having pulled the wool over the eyes of the academic sachems at Yale to bless his fly fishing vacation in England as the subject of his thesis. He wraps the proposal in the esteemed pages of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, the most purchased and least read book in the history of print. Prosek forces us to wade through a number of English rivers and some tedious prose, and in this respect he does resemble Walton. His constant comparisons of himself to Walton tend to bog down his writing. He ruminates on how he is standing in the same water that Walton once stood, the worst kind of conceit. You don't even stand in the same river yourself when you happen to be standing in one! The only redeeming feature of this volume is that it is beautiful book, with Prosek's watercolors generously peppered throughout. He is a gifted painter and his first book is one of my favorites. This volume, however, has more of the red herring about it than the noble trout. I admire a good con job, I just hate it when it's pulled on me.
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