Pearl Sydenstricker Buck

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck , 1892-1973, American author, b. Hillsboro, W.Va., grad. Randolph-Macon Women's College, 1914. Pearl Buck was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature. Until 1924 she lived principally in China, where she, her parents, and her first husband, John Lossing Buck, were missionaries. She is famous for vivid, compassionate novels about life in China. The Good Earth (1931; Pulitzer Prize), considered her finest work, describes a Chinese peasant's rise to wealth and brilliantly conveys a sense of the daily life of ordinary Chinese people. Among her other novels of China are East Wind: West Wind (1930), Dragon Seed (1942), Imperial Woman (1956), and Mandala (1971). In 1935, she married her publisher Richard J. Walsh, president of the John Day Company. In 1949 she founded Welcome House, which provided care for the children of Asian women and American soldiers; the Pearl Buck Foundation of Philadelphia, to which she consigned most of her royalties, aids in the adoption of Amerasian children. Her more than 85 books include works for children, plays, biographies, and works of nonfiction, such as China As I See It (1970).

Bibliography: See her autobiography, My Several Worlds (1954); biography by T. F. Harris (2 vol., 1969-71).

Buck, Pearl [Sydenstricker] (1892–1973), born in West Virginia, reared in China, where her parents were missionaries. Educated at Randolph‐Macon and Cornell, she returned to be a missionary and teacher at Chinese universities. Of her many novels about China the best known is The Good Earth (1931, Pulitzer Prize), the first of a trilogy, The House of Earth, including Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). She was prolific, producing a book every other year. Most notable later works include The Spirit and the Flesh (1936), moving portraits of her mother and father; a translation from the classic Chinese of one of China's most famous novels, Shui Hu Chuan (The Water Margin) as All Men Are Brothers (2 vols., 1933, 1937); and Imperial Woman (1956), a fictionalized life of China's last empress. She also wrote stories, plays, essays, and children's books. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

Buck, Pearl S. ( Sydenstricker) (1892–1973) US novelist. Buck was brought up in China, which she used as the setting for many of her novels, including The Good Earth (1931), which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Her other works include Sons (1932), The Mother (1934), A House Divided (1935) and Dragon Seed (1942). She also wrote plays, screenplays, verse and children's fiction. Buck received the 1938 Nobel Prize in literature.