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Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 — March 6, 1973) also known as Sai Zhen Zhu (Simplified Chinese
Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
: ???; Pinyin
Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
: Sŕi Zhenzhu; Traditional Chinese
Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
: ???), was a prolific American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 sinologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel

The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel was a prize awarded between 1918 and 1947. In 1948, it was replaced by the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.* 1917 in literature: no award given...
 American writer. In 1938
1938 in literature

The year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." With no irony, she has been described in China as a Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 writer.

l Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia
Hillsboro, West Virginia

Hillsboro is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, West Virginia, United States. The population was 243 at the 2000 census....
 to Caroline (Stulting; 1857-1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker, a Southern Presbyterian
American Southern Presbyterian Mission

American Southern Presbyterian Mission was an United States Presbyterian missionary society of the Presbyterian Church in the United States that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty....
 missionary
Mission (Christian)

A Christianity mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous Christian Church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a Christian theology imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission....
.






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Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 — March 6, 1973) also known as Sai Zhen Zhu (Simplified Chinese
Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
: ???; Pinyin
Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
: Sŕi Zhenzhu; Traditional Chinese
Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
: ???), was a prolific American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 sinologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel

The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel was a prize awarded between 1918 and 1947. In 1948, it was replaced by the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.* 1917 in literature: no award given...
 American writer. In 1938
1938 in literature

The year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." With no irony, she has been described in China as a Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 writer.

Life

Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia
Hillsboro, West Virginia

Hillsboro is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, West Virginia, United States. The population was 243 at the 2000 census....
 to Caroline (Stulting; 1857-1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker, a Southern Presbyterian
American Southern Presbyterian Mission

American Southern Presbyterian Mission was an United States Presbyterian missionary society of the Presbyterian Church in the United States that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty....
 missionary
Mission (Christian)

A Christianity mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous Christian Church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a Christian theology imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission....
. The family was sent to Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang

Zhenjiang is a prefecture-level city in the southwestern Jiangsu province of China, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Changzhou to the east, and Yangzhou across the river to the north....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 in 1892 when Pearl was 3 months old. She was raised in China and was tutored by a Confucian
Confucius

This articles talks about a Chinese thinker and social philosopher. For a food company in China with its brand name "Master Kong", please refer to Tingyi Holding Corporation....
 scholar named Mr. Kung. She was taught English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as a second language by her mother and tutor.

The Boxer Uprising
Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion, or more properly Boxer Uprising, was a violent anti-foreign, anti-Christian movement by the "Righteous Fists of Harmony,? Yihe tuan or Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists in China....
 greatly affected Pearl Buck and her family. Buck wrote that during this time, …her eight-year-old childhood … split apart. Her Chinese friends deserted her and her family, and there were not as many Western visitors as there once were. The streets [of China] were alive with rumors- many … based on fact- of brutality to missionaries … Buck’s father was a missionary, so Buck’s mother, her little sister, and herself were …evacuated to the relative safety of Shanghai, where they spent nearly a year as refugees… (The Good Earth, Introduction) In July 1901, Buck and her family sailed to San Francisco. Not until the following year did the Sydenstrickers return to China.

In 1910, she left China once again for America to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's College , where she would earn her degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1914. She then returned to China and married an agricultural economist missionary, John Lossing Buck, on May 13, 1917. She lived with him in Suzhou, Anhui Province, a small town on the Huai River (There are two cities in China with the same English name 'Suzhou', one in Anhui while the more famous one is in Jiangsu Province. The one where the Bucks had spent several years was in Anhui). It is the region she described later in "The Good Earth."; her book was very much based on her experience in Suzhou, Anhui. She served in China as a Presbyterian missionary from 1914 until 1933. Her views later became highly controversial in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy

The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy was a religious controversy in the 1920s and '30s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that later created divisions in most American Christian denominations as well....
, leading to her resignation as a missionary. In 1920, she and John had a daughter, Carol, who was afflicted with phenylketonuria
Phenylketonuria

Phenylketonuria is an Dominance genetic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase . This enzyme is necessary to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine....
. The small family then moved to Nanjing
Nanjing

is the capital city of China's Jiangsu province of China, and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and Chinese culture. Nanjing served as the capital of China during several historical periods and is listed as one of the Historical capitals of China....
, where Pearl taught English literature
English literature

The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S....
 at the University of Nanking
University of Nanking

The University of Nanking was a private university in Nanjing, China which was founded in 1888 and sponsored by American churches. It's originally named the Nanking University, the first school officially named University in China....
. In 1925, the Bucks adopted Janice (later surnamed Walsh). In 1926, she left China and returned to the United States for a short time in order to earn her Masters
Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts is a Postgraduate education academic degree master degree awarded by University in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English language, Fine Arts, History, Humanities, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a combination of the two....
 degree from Cornell University
Cornell University

Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a private university with four Statutory college. Its two medical campuses are in New York City and Education City, Qatar....
.

From 1920 to 1933, Pearl and John made their home in Nanking (Nanjing), on the campus of Nanking University, where both had teaching positions. In 1921, Pearl's mother died, and shortly afterwards her father moved in with the Bucks. The tragedies and dislocations which Pearl suffered in the 1920s reached a climax in March 1927, in the violence known as the "Nanking Incident." In a confused battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek , Order of the Bath , served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. He was sometimes referred to simply as "the Generalissimo"....
's Nationalist troops, Communist forces, and assorted warlords, several Westerners were murdered. The Bucks spent a terrified day in hiding, after which they were rescued by American gunboats. After a trip downriver to Shanghai, the Buck family sailed to Unzen, Japan, where they spent the following year. They later moved back to Nanking, though conditions remained dangerously unsettled.

In 1935 Pearl got a divorce. Richard Walsh, president of the John Day Company and her publisher, became her second husband. The couple lived in Pennsylvania.

Humanitarian efforts

Buck was an extremely passionate activist for human rights. In 1949, outraged that existing adoption
Adoption

Adoption is the act of Family law placing a child with a parent or parents other than those to whom they were born. An adoption order has the effect of severing parental responsibilities and rights of the original parent and transferring those responsibilities and rights to the adoptive parent....
 services considered Asian and mixed-race
Interracial

Interracial is an adjective related to Race . It can have different connotations in different contexts:*Interracial adoption means placing a child of one racial group or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial group or ethnic group....
 children unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, Inc., the first international, interracial adoption agency. In the nearly five decades of its work, Welcome House has assisted in the placement of more than five thousand children. In 1964, to provide support for Asian-American children who were not eligible for adoption, Buck also established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which provides sponsorship funding for thousands of children in half a dozen Asian countries. When establishing the Opportunity House Foundation to support child sponsorship programs in Asia, Buck said, "The purpose...is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children."

While the historic site works to preserve and display artifacts from her profoundly multicultural life, many of Buck's life experiences are also described in her novels, short stories
Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to one of the following.*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , a collection by Liam O'Flaherty*Short Stories *Short Stories , a 1954 collection by O....
, fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
, and children's stories. Through them she sought to prove to her readers that universality of mankind can exist if man accepts it. She dealt with many topics including women's rights
Women's rights

The term women's rights refers to Freedom and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society....
, emotion
Emotion

An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior.Emotions are subjective experiences, or experienced from an individual point of view....
s (in general), Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
n cultures, immigration
Immigration

While the movement of people has thought throughout history at various levels, modern immigration tourism are considered non-immigrants . Immigration that violates the immigration laws of the destination country is termed illegal immigration or undocumented immigration....
, adoption, and conflicts that many people go through in life.

Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer
Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
 on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont
Danby, Vermont

Danby is a New England town in Rutland County, Vermont, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,292 at the 2000 United States Census....
 and was interred in Green Hills Farm
Green hills farm

Green Hills Farm is the sixty-acre Homesteading in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where Nobel prize-winning United States author Pearl Buck lived for 40 years, raising her family, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening....
 in Perkasie. She designed her own tombstone, which does not record her name in English; instead, the grave marker is inscribed with Chinese characters representing the name Pearl Sydenstricker.

Selected bibliography


Novels

  • East Wind:West Wind (1930)
  • The House of Earth (1935)
    • The Good Earth
      The Good Earth

      The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 in literature and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided ....
       (1931)
    • Sons
      Sons (novel)

      Sons is the sequel to the novel The Good Earth, and the second book in the The House of Earth trilogy by renowned author Pearl S. Buck. It was first published in 1932....
       (1933)
    • A House Divided
      A House Divided (novel)

      A House Divided is the sequel to the 1932 novel Sons , and the third book in The House of Earth trilogy, all written by Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck.It centers around the third generation of Wang Lung's family....
       (1935)
  • The Mother (1933)
  • This Proud Heart (1938)
  • The Patriot (1939)
  • Other Gods (1940)
  • China Sky
    China Sky

    China Sky is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1941. The story centers around love, honor, and wartime treachery in an American hospital in the fictional town of Chen-li, China, during the Japanese invasion....
     (1941)
  • Dragon Seed (1942)
  • The Promise (1943)
  • The Townsman (1945) -- as John Sedges
  • Portrait of a Marriage (1945)
  • Pavilion of Women (1946)
  • The Angry Wife (1947) -- as John Sedges
  • Peony
    Peony (book)

    Peony is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1948. It is a story of Kaifeng Jews....
     (1948)
  • The Big Wave
    The Big Wave

    The Big Wave is a novel by Pearl S. Buck....
     (1948)
  • A Long Love (1949) -- as John Sedges
  • Kinfolk (1950)
  • God's Men (1951)
  • The Hidden Flower (1952)
  • Come, My Beloved (1953)
  • Voices in the House (1953) -- as John Sedges
  • Imperial Woman
    Imperial Woman

    Imperial Woman is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1956.Imperial Woman is a fictionalized biography of Ci-xi , who was a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908 ....
     (1956)
  • Letter from Peking
    Letter from Peking

    'Letter from Peking' is a 1957 novel by Pearl S. Buck. The story is about a loving interracial marriage between Gerald and Elizabeth MacLeod, their separation due to the communist uprising in China in 1945, and their separate lives in China and America....
     (1957)
  • Command the Morning (1959)
  • Satan Never Sleeps (1962; see 1962 film Satan Never Sleeps
    Satan Never Sleeps

    Satan Never Sleeps is film directed by Leo McCarey is his final film about a priest Father O'Banion arrives at a mission-post in China accompanied by a young native girl Siu Lan who has joined him along the way....
    )
  • The Living Reed
    The Living Reed

    The Living Reed is an historical novel by Pearl S. Buck in which life in Korea, from the latter part of the nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, is described through the viewpoints and lives of several members of four generations of a prominent aristocratic family....
     (1963)
  • Death in the Castle (1965)
  • The Time Is Noon (1966)
  • Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (1967)
  • The New Year (1968)
  • The Three Daughters of Madame Liang (1969)
  • Mandala (1970)
  • The Goddess Abides (1972)
  • All Under Heaven (1973)
  • The Rainbow (1974)


Biographies

  • The Exile (1936)
  • Fighting Angel (1936)


Autobiographies

  • My Several Worlds (1954)
  • A Bridge For Passing (1962)


Non-fiction

  • Of Men and Women (1941)
  • How It Happens: Talk about the German People, 1914-1933, with Erna Pustau (1947)
  • The Child Who Never Grew (1950)
  • My Several Worlds (1954)
  • For Spacious Skies (1966)
  • The People of Japan (1966)
  • The Kennedy Women (1970)
  • China as I See It (1970)
  • The Story Bible (1971)
  • Pearl S. Buck's Oriental Cookbook (1972)


Short Stories

  • The First Wife and Other Stories (1933)
  • Today and Forever: Stories of China (1941)
  • Twenty-Seven Stories (1943)
  • Far and Near: Stories of Japan, China, and America (1949)
  • Fourteen Stories (1961)
  • Hearts Come Home and Other Stories (1962)
  • Stories of China (1964)
  • Escape at Midnight and Other Stories (1964)
  • The Good Deed and Other Stories of Asia, Past and Present (1969)
  • Once Upon a Christmas (1972)
  • East and West Stories (1975)
  • Secrets of the Heart: Stories (1976)
  • The Lovers and Other Stories (1977)
  • Mrs. Stoner and the Sea and Other Stories (1978)
  • The Woman Who Was Changed and Other Stories (1979)
  • The Good Deed (1969)
  • "Christmas Day in the Morning"

Awards

  • Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
    Pulitzer Prize for the Novel

    The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel was a prize awarded between 1918 and 1947. In 1948, it was replaced by the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.* 1917 in literature: no award given...
    : The Good Earth
    The Good Earth

    The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 in literature and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided ....
     (1932)
  • William Dean Howells Medal (1935)
  • Nobel Prize in Literature
    Nobel Prize in Literature

    The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
     (1938)


Museums and Historic Houses

  • The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace
    The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace

    The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia was once the home of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Pearl Sydenstricker Buck. Pearl Buck?s mother's family, the Stultings, emigrated from Holland in 1847 and settled on a sixteen acre farm in Hillsboro....
     in Hillsboro, West Virginia
    Hillsboro, West Virginia

    Hillsboro is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, West Virginia, United States. The population was 243 at the 2000 census....
  • Green Hills Farm
    Green hills farm

    Green Hills Farm is the sixty-acre Homesteading in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where Nobel prize-winning United States author Pearl Buck lived for 40 years, raising her family, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening....
     in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
    Bucks County, Pennsylvania

    Bucks County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The county seat is Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The suburban county is one of the five counties in Pennsylvania that make up the Delaware Valley, or Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area....
  • in Zhenjiang, China
  • The Pearl S. Buck Summer Villa, on Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province, China
  • The Pearl Buck Museum in Anhui Province, China
  • The Pearl S. Buck Memorial Hall, Bucheon City, South Korea


External links

Museums and Service Opportunities:


Biographies:


Other Projects:
  • The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.