The compleat cyclist: Izaak Walton’s influence on early cycling literature

Abstract

It may seem a stretch to suggest that a seventeenth-century book about fishing had an influence on late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature about cycling, but that is precisely what I am proposing. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Izaak Walton's classic text The Compleat Angler: The Contemplative Man's Recreation (1653) was frequently mentioned as an inspiration and touchpoint by literary sporting writers, especially literary cyclists. Something about Walton's book clearly spoke to a certain kind of cycling writer at this time: its themes of idyllic ruralism, the contemplative life, and (mostly male) friendship, together with its argument for a civilized, genteel, sporting pastime, were instructive for those literary cyclists trying to foster a positive and sophisticated image of what I call "rambling" cycle travel.