Who was Izaak Walton?
Izaak Walton (1593-1683) was an English author best know for his biography of the poet John Donne and for The Compleat Angler, an essay on the joys of fishing. When I chose Izaak Walton’s name for this web ring, I hoped to attract chapter sites of the Izaak Walton League of America and those of organizations and individuals with similar aims. This focus proved too narrow, so I broadened it to include sites that aim to “reconcile human activity with the natural world.” Izaak Walton’s life predated the conservation movement of the 19th and 20th centuries and the environmental movement of the 20th and 21st. But he saw interaction with nature as an essential part of a happy life. He was a Christian who clearly believed that God intended humans to use and enjoy the natural world, and it’s probably not unreasonable to think that he would have regarded modern pollution and environmental degradation as sin. What is a “web ring?” A web ring is a series of web sites with a common theme connected
