Author Review - Pearl S. Buck

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

16 Feb 2007 12:39 AM

Ever wonder what the "S" in Pearl S. Buck stands for? Sydenstricker, that's what. I never would have guessed that one. But sure enough, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born in 1892 in West Virginia. Her parents were missionaries for the Southern Presbyterian church and worked extensively in China. Three months after Pearl was born, her parents returned to the Orient, where Pearl would spend much of her life until she was forty years old. She learned Chinese simultaneously with English as a child, being taught at home by her mother and by a Chinese tutor.

During the Boxer uprising, she moved with her mother and siblings to Shanghai, waiting for word from her father concerning his safety. They later returned to the United States for a time, where Pearl attended the Randolph-Macon Woman's College while her mother traveled back to China. She graduated from this school and thought her time in the Orient was over, but she received word that her mother was ill and so she returned. It seemed fate had a hand in this - while she was there, she met a young agricultural economist by the name of John Lossing Buck, and they were married.

Tragedy struck the young couple early. Their first child was born profoundly retarded, and Pearl underwent a hysterectomy because of a large tumor found in her uterus. The couple adopted another daughter later on.

In March of 1927, a massacre which would be known as the "Nanking Incident," involving Chiang Kai-shek's troops, brought about the murder of several Westerners. The Bucks were nearby and spent several long hours in hiding before they were rescued by American gunboats. After this, they moved to Japan, to return to China a year later when things were still rocky, but more settled than they had been.

Pearl used her understanding of the land of China to publish essays and stories in the 1920's, and she published her first novel, "East Wind, West Wind" in 1930. Her publisher was John Day. Her second novel, "The Good Earth," was published in 1931, and took the Pulitzer Prize.

By 1935, she had received a divorce from Lossing; their marriage had been unsettled for years. She married John Day, her publisher, also divorced from his first wife. In 1938, she won the Nobel Prize in literature, and became the first American woman to receive the honor.

Pearl has been active in women's rights and American civil rights, and she established Welcome House, an inter-racial adoption agency. It was nearly impossible at that time to place an half-Asian baby with a family of either race, and Pearl had seen far too many children left to die. Her agency has helped thousands of children in this unfortunate situation.

Pearl died in March of 1973, unfortunately three years before I was born. I just missed her. I consider her to be one of the century's most influential female writers, a strong and dedicated woman, and I admire her tremendously.

Information for this article found at:

University of Pennsylvania

Related Blogs:

The Good Earth

Seventh Grade Reading Lists

To Kill a Mockingbird

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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