Pearl S. Buck

Thank you for coming to my page on Pearl S. Buck.   My name is Joanna Rooney and I am a freshman at Randolph-Macon Women's College.  Even though this has been a class assignment I have really enjoyed learning about the fascinating life of Pearl Buck.  I hope you enjoy this web page and I hope that it helps you learn a little about the life of this truly fascinating woman.
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A Brief Biography

Early Childhood

    Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, on June 26, 1892.  At the age of three months her parents, Carie and Absalom Sydenstricker, took Pearl and her older brother back to China.  Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries in  China and had returned to America because Carie had lost three of four children and Carie was devastated.  Pearl grew up happy and healthy in a land so different from that which her mother would tell her stories about.
    This land that Pearl grew up in gave Pearl many experiences and let her get to know any people that she would write about later in her life.  Her Chinese nanny Wang Amah would often tell her stories of her life, Buddiest, and Taoist tales.  Once Pearl got older one of her favorite past times was to read.  She especially liked Charles Dickens she said that he taught her many things such as how to read and accept different kinds of people.
Learn more about Pearl Bucks Childhood
    Education

    When Pearl was fifteen she was sent to boarding school in Shanghai.  After boarding school she enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman's College.  Once Pearl graduated in 1914 she returned to China after hearing news that her mother was seriously ill.

Family Life

Upon her return to China she met her first husband, John L. Buck.  With John Pearl had her first child, Carol, in 1921.  Carol turned out to be very mentally handicapped.  In addition to this Pearl had to have a hysterectomy, because of a tumor found during her delivery of Carol.  Eventually Pearl and John adopted a baby girl, Janice.

Pearl's Literary Career

    Pearl moved with her family back to the United States.  Once back in the United States again Pearl published her first book, East Wind, West Wind, that was published by the John Day Company.  The publisher of the John Day Company, Richard Walsh, became Pearl's second husband.  Her second novel, The Good Earth, went on to become the best selling book of 1931 and 1932.  It won the Pulitzer Prize and the Howells Medal in 1935, later it would be made into a major motion picture.  Pearl won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

Pearl's Later Life

    Eventually Pearl moved to an old farmhouse in Green Hills Farm, in Bucks County Pennsylvanian.  While she was there she and Richard adopted six more children.  Pearl was also active in the American civil rights and the women's movement.  In shook that information that adoption agencies found mixed race children unadoptable she founded the Welcome House.  The Welcome house was the first of it's kind; it was the first international, and inter-racial adoption agency.  Pearl Buck died in March 1973 and is buried at her home, Green Hills Farm. She left behind a legacy of great literary talent and kindness that will not be forgotten.
 
 

Web Sources

Pearl S. Buck

Biographical Sketch of Pearl S. Buck
 
 

Interesting Links



Chinese Women in the Early Twentieth Century
 

Power Point Presentation of Chinese Women in the Early Twentieth Century

Graphic Sources
 

Hee Yun's Little Home

Four Bees

Animation Art House

Joanna Rooney
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Lynchburg, VA 24503
jmrooney@rmwc.edu