Pearl
Buck
(Sydenstricker) was
born
in Hillsboro, West Virginia on 26th June, 1892. The daughter of Presbyterian
missionaries, she was raised in China.
Buck returned to the United
States and studied at Randolph-Macon Woman's College and Cornell
University. In 1925 Buck was back in China and taught at Nanking University.
Her first novel, East Wind: West Wind,
was published in 1930. This was followed by the highly successful
The Good Earth (1931). It won
the Pulitzer
Prize
and inspired a Broadway
play and an award-winning film.
The
Good Earth was followed by The
Mother (1934), House of Earth
(1935), The Exile (1936),
Fighting Angel (1936), The Proud
Heart (1938) and Dragon Seed
(1942).
Buck was a strong advocate
of women's rights and wrote essays such as Of
Men and Women (1941) and American
Unity and Asia (1942) where she warned that racist and
sexist attitudes would damage long-term prospects of peace in Asia.
Later novels by Buck includes
Townsman (1945), Pavilion
of Women (1946), The Hidden Flower
(1952), Imperial Women (1956)
and Command the Morning (1959).
Pearl
Buck
died of lung cancer in
Danby, Vermont, on 6th March, 1973.
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