Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) was a bestselling and Nobel
Prize–winning author. Her classic novel The Good Earth (1931)
was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and William Dean Howells Medal.
Born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, Buck was the daughter of
missionaries and spent much of the first half of her life in
China, where many of her books are set. In 1934, civil unrest in
China forced Buck back to the United States. Throughout her life
she worked in support of civil and women’s rights, and
established Welcome House, the first international, interracial
adoption agency. In addition to her highly acclaimed novels,
Buck wrote two memoirs and biographies of both of her parents.
For her body of work, Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1938, the first American woman to have done so.
She died in Vermont. Receive news about our sweepstakes, sales
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