Pearl Buck (1892-1973 ) was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. She
grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries, but was educated at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. After her
graduation she returned to China and lived there until 1934 with the exception of a year
spent at Cornell University, where
she took an M.A. in 1926. Pearl Buck began to write in the twenties; her first novel, East
Wind, West Wind, appeared in 1930. It was followed by The Good Earth (1931), Sons
(1932), and A House Divided (1935), together forming a trilogy on the saga of the
family of Wang. The Good Earth stood on the American list of «best sellers» for a
long time and earned her several awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Medal. She also published The
First Wife and Other Stories (1933), All Men are Brothers (a translation of the
Chinese novel Shui Hu Chuan) (1933), The Mother (1934), and This Proud
Heart ( 1938). The biographies of her mother and father, The Exile and Fighting
Angel, were published in 1936 and later brought out together under the title of The
Spirit and the Flesh (1944). The Time Is Now, a fictionalized account of the
author's emotional experiences, although written much earlier, did not appear in print
until 1967. Pearl Buck's works after 1938 are too many to mention. Her novels have continued to deal with the confrontation of East and West, her interest spreading to such countries as India and Korea. Her novelist's interest in the interplay of East and West has also led to some activity in political journalism.
Pearl Buck has been active in many welfare organizations; in particular she set up an agency for the adoption of Asian-American children (Welcome House, Inc.) and has taken an active interest in retarded children (The Child Who Never Grew, 1950).
From Nobel Lectures,Literature 1901-1967.
Pearl Buck died in 1973.