Pearl Buck, ca. 1932.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 - March 6, 1973) also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu (pinyin: Sai Zhenzhu), was an award-winning American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."
Novel
The Good Earth (1931)
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. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935).
The novel of family life in a Chinese village before the 1949 Revolution was a best-seller in both 1931 and 1932 and has been a steady favorite ever since.In 2004,the book was returned to the best seller list when chosen by the television host Oprah Winfrey for Oprah¡¯s Book Club.The novel helped prepare Americans of the 1930s to consider Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan.
A Broadway stage adaptation was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1932, written by the father and son playwriting team of Owen and Donald Davis, but it was poorly received by the critics, and ran only 56 performances. However, the 1937 film, The Good Earth, which was based on the stage version, was more successful.
Museums and historic houses
The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia
Green Hills Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
The Zhenjiang Pearl S. Buck Research Association in Zhenjiang, China
Pearl S. Buck House in Nanjing, China
The Pearl S. Buck Summer Villa, on Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province, China
The Pearl S. Buck Memorial Hall, Bucheon City, South Korea |
