The Complete Angler
Harper Collins, 1999
As a senior at Yale, James Prosek won a traveling fellowship to follow in the footsteps of Izaak Walton, the seventeenth century author of The Compleat Angler. The book became his obsession and along Prosek’s pilgrimage through England, he made friends and fished the waters Walton had fished over three centuries ago. The British of all classes opened their homes to Prosek and made it possible for him to fish the waters that are now privately held. Prosek adopts Walton’s philosophy as his own; to live with humor, wisdom, contentment and simplicity.
In 2002 the book was made into a documentary for television which won James a Peabody Award.
“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.”
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