Record Number: 18379
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Spender cut his tobacco allowance down to one pipeful a day in order to take with him Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Forster's "A Passage to India". These were a great boon to us in our few bouts of bad weather,though Tilman and I felt ourselves morally obliged to pay with tobacco for the luxury of reading.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:25 May 1937
Country:Pre-Partition India (now Pakistan) and China
Timedaytime: probably daytime during bad weather
Place:other location: various locations in the Karakoram Himalaya
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reading Group:Members of Shaksgam Expedition
Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:n/a
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:mountaineer and writer (Shipton and Tilman); surveyor (Spender)
Religion:unknown
Country of Origin:English (all )
Country of Experience:Pre-Partition India (now Pakistan) and China
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
The small team of four Europeans included, as well as Eric Shipton, the equally well known explorer and writer Bill Tilman, the surveyor Michael Spender (brother of Stephen Spender) and the geologist John Auden (brother of W.H.Auden).
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:A Passage to India
Genre:Fiction
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details1924
Provenancen/a
Source Information:
Record ID:18379
Source:Eric Shipton
Editor:n/a
Title:Blank on the Map: in The Six Mountain Travel Books
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1999 (1938)
Vol:n/a
Page:193
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Eric Shipton, Blank on the Map: in The Six Mountain Travel Books, (London, 1999 (1938)), p. 193, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18379, accessed: 26 April 2025
Additional Comments:
Details of ages of the three documented readers in the 'reading group' have not been entered here though they are available as cross reference to other records where members are cited individually as readers. Their professions are entered together in one field and their socio economic groups were the same.`The team also had available Tolstoy's "War and Peace".
