Izaak Walton

Izaak Walton (1593–1683) was an English writer best known for *The Compleat Angler*, a classic work celebrating fishing, friendship, and rural life. Born in Stafford, he later lived and worked in London as a tradesman before turning increasingly to writing. Walton was also a notable biographer: his *Lives* include accounts of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robert Sanderson, valued for their vivid anecdotes and affectionate tone. A Royalist sympathizer during the English Civil War, he spent later years in quieter circumstances, continuing to revise and expand his writings.