Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth

The Good Earth

The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938...

was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938

1938 in literature

The year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The trilogy, U.S.A. by John Dos Passos, is published containing his three novels The 42nd Parallel , 1919 , and The Big Money ....

, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually 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."
Pearl Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia

Hillsboro, West Virginia

Hillsboro is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 243 at the 2000 census.- History :Hillsboro was named for pioneer John Hill, from North Carolina, who built a log cabin near what is now Lobelia...

 to Caroline Stulting (1857–1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker

Absalom Sydenstricker

Absalom Sydenstricker was an American Presbyterian missionary to China from 1880 to 1931. The Sydenstricker log house at the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia was Absalom's early childhood home....

.