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Author photo. Pearl S. Buck at the time of her winning the Nobel Prize

Pearl S. Buck at the time of her winning the Nobel Prize

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Pearl S. Buck, June 26, 1892 - March 6, 1973 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was an American author, best know for her novels about China. Buck was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia, but as the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries she was taken to China in infancy. She received her early education in Shanghai, but returned to the United States to attend college, and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia in 1914. Buck became a university teacher there and married John Lossing Buck, an agricultural economist, in 1917. Buck and her husband both taught in China, and she published magazine articles about life there. Her first novel East Wind, West Wind was published in 1930. Buck achieved international success with The Good Earth, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. This story of a Chinese peasant family's struggle for survival was later made into a MGM film. Buck resigned from the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions after publishing an article that was critical of missionaries. She returned to the United States because of political unrest in China. Buck's novels during this period include Sons, A House Divided, and The Mother. She also wrote biographies of her father (Fighting Angel) and her mother (The Exile). She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. During her career, Buck published over 70 books: novels, nonfiction, story collections, children's books, and translations from the Chinese. She also wrote under the pseudonym John Sedges. In the United States, Buck was active in the civil rights and women's rights movements. In 1942 she founded the East and West Association to promote understanding between Asia and the West. In 1949, Buck established Welcome House, the first international interracial adoption agency. In 1964, she established the Pearl S. Buck foundation to sponsor support for Amerasian children who were not considered adoptable. Pearl Buck died in Danbury, Vermont, on March 6, 1973. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from The Good Earth… (more)
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[No title] 1 copy
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Short biography
Pearl Sydenstricker was the daughter of Southern Presbyterian missionaries. She spent much of her life in China, though she graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. From childhood she was bilingual in English and Chinese. She married an agricultural economist named John Lossing Buck in 1917, and together they lived in rural Anhwei province, an impoverished area. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Good Earth, and other stories set in China are based on what she learned while living there. In 1935, after divorcing John Buck, Pearl married publisher Richard Walsh. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. She is buried at Green Hills Farm, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Pearl S. Buck's book Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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