1892 - 1973
first American Nobel Prizewinner whose writings reflected the 40 years she spent in China.
Pearl Buck was born in Viginia in the United States but became both a missionary and teacher in China and strove to improve Chinese-American relations. Her works include reflections on both American and Chinese thinking and she established the Pearl S Buck Foundation to assist illegitimate children born of U.S. servicemen and this foundation became the benefactor of most of her income.
The House of Earth Trilogy included the The Good Earth for which she received a Pulitizer Prize (1932) which was later adapted for stage and screen. This was followed by Sons and A House Divided. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938, which was not expected by either herself or her critics who considered that it was justified by the commitment to promoting peace and idealism. She wrote several novels about Chinese peasants and biographies about her parents as missionaries in China - The Angel and The Exile. She also published short stories and wrote about her retartded daughter in The Child who Never Grew. Using the pseudonym John Sedges she published several novels of a different naure including The Townsman.
Pearl Buck died in Vermont in 1973.
Imperial Woman Imperial Power -- Analysis of Imperial Woman (Pearl Buck) and the manner in which Buck exposes the palace intrigues of the Forbidden City.