The Compleat Angler

On Feb 8, 3:42 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 at 19:03:24 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Wolfgang
wrote:



On Feb 7, 11:36 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 06:26:42 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly salmobytes
wrote:On Feb 1, 6:50 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Piscator, Venator and Auceps......

Yes Venator, not Viator. My only latin is of the porcine variety,
so it's not surprising I remembered it the nefas way.

Viator (traveller) in the first edition.

That say you learn something new every day. It's not true except in
the most trivial sense.

This, however, is VERY interesting! Never before came across a
reference to name changes in later editions. So, was it just the
name? Or was the dialogue changed to suit?

In the first edition there are just the two characters - Piscator and
Viator. AIUI there are additional characters in the later editions and
the text is obviously adjusted accordingly. Indeed, later editions are
shown as having additional authors - Charles Cotton, John Buxton, and
John Buchan.

I've made a start on some of the later editions but never finished them
- they are padded out quite a bit more than the first edition.

I'll post a few of the opening pages of the first edition at
www.abertawe.co.uk/compleat/compleat.htm
(each pic about 60KB) and as a .PDF (2MB) in
alt.binaries.pictures.fishing
so that you can get a flavour. Reading the original version, squiggles
and all, is so much more fun..!

BTW, there's only one instance of the spelling "Compleat" in the first
edition - it's "Complete" everywhere but on the title page.

Fascinating stuff.....at least to those of us with a thing for books.
Also surprising. Although I've long been aware that books evolve, I'd
never heard anything about changes in this one despite having been an
English major......at a university with a College of Natural Resources
(where Walton, among others, was worshipped as something of a demi-
god).....continuing to be an avid angler, the fact that "The Compleat
Angler" is regarded as a classic of English literature even outside of
angling circles, and having read both the book and about it for a long
time.

Looking forward to seeing the pages.....assuming that I can figure out
how to get to abpi on Google groups.

Thanks, N.B.

Wolfgang