A Thousand Days in the Arctic…with a Preface by Admiral Sir. F. Leopold McClintock.

Jackson, Frederick G. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899.
  • 1894-97 British Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition to Franz-Josef Land.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This is the expedition which Nansen found (or vice versa) when returning from his North Polar trip, June 17, 1896. Jackson’s ship was the Windward which took Nansen back to Norway, returning the following July to return the whole Jackson expedition.

Man the Ropes.

Courtauld, Augustine. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1957).
  • 1930-31 British Greenland Air Route Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A short autobiography that covers his early Greenland trip with Gino Watkins, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930.

The Man on the Ice Cap. The Life of August Courtauld.

Woolaston, Nicholas. (London: Constable, 1980).
  • 1930-31 British Greenland Air Route Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Courtauld was a British yachtsman who notably spent a winter alone as meteorologist on the Greenland icecap in 1930-31, where he had considerable reading matter.

Watkins’ Last Expedition.

Chapman, Frederick Spencer. With an Introduction by Augustine Courtauld. London: Chatto and Windus, 1934.
  • 1932-33 British East Greenland Expedition (Gino Watkins aboard Quest).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. xii, Introduction: Time may pass, but the memory will never fade of that little tent we shared, the thoughts we shared, the fears we shared; how, during those dark fierce days of blizzard, when travel was impossible, he [Chapman] used to read in a clear tenor from one of our few small books, while the tent shook to the bass of the storm’s accompaniment.

Sledge: The British Trans-Greenland Expedition 1934.

Lindsay, Martin. London: Cassell, 1935.
  • 1934 British Trans-Greenland Expedition (commanded by Martin Lindsay).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

An account of the traversal of the Greenland Ice-Cap, between Jakobshaven, near Disco Island on the west coast, and Angmagssalik on the east coast.

Under the Pole Star: The Oxford University Expedition, 1935-6.

Glen, Alexander Richard. London: Methuen, 1937.
  • 1935-36 Oxford University North East Land Spitzbergen Expedition (led by Alexander Glen).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A British expedition to North East Land of Spitsbergen, with a mixture of English and Norwegian crew, scientists and sailors. Glen was the expedition leader and wrote this account with a debonair and detached style. The assignment was to survey the north east region of the archipelago. Obviously this was a bookish group who did a good deal of reading but seldom reporting on what they were reading. The author himself seems prone to boredom and speaks of it fairly often.

Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition.

Bull, Colin. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2005.
  • 1951 British Spitsbergen Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 115: Otherwise, when confined to the tent, they talked and, when all subjects had been exhausted, either slept or read. In addition to a few books they had newspapers galore, generously supplied by a Birmingham dealer for safely wrapping the fossils and rock samples. The newspapers were used for extra insulation and to mop up penetrating precipitation. When the level of water in the tent exceeded the mopping capabilities of the newspapers, the occupants encouraged the water into a sump and made a suitable drain hole in the sewn-in ground sheet. They, and we three in the other inland party, were all much disappointed to find that all of the copies of the newspaper were of the same date and the same edition. Consequently we all learned some of the text by heart.