Warning: strpos(): Empty needle in /homepages/5/d845057890/htdocs/clickandbuilds/LionessatLarge/wp-content/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails-advanced/classes/Environment.php on line 47
Pearl S. Buck – Lioness at Large

Pearl S. Buck

(1892 – 1973)

Pearl S. BuckBiographical Sketch

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (Hillsboro, WV, USA, June 26, 1892 – Danby, VT, USA, March 6, 1973), also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu (Chinese: 賽珍珠; pinyin: Sài Zhēnzhū), was an American writer who spent most of her life 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 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”

After her return to the United States in 1935, she continued her prolific writing career, and became a prominent advocate of the rights of women and minority groups, and wrote widely on Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed race adoption.

Read more about Pearl S. Buck on Wikipedia.

 

Major Awards and Honors

Nobel Prize for Literature
  • 1938
Pulitzer Prize (USA)
  • 1932: Novel – “The Good Earth”
O. Henry Award for Short Fiction
  • 1933: Second Prize – “The Frill” (published in Woman’s Home Companion)
  • 1934: First Prize – “Shanghai Scene” (published in Asia)
  • 1943: First Prize – “The Enemy” (published in Harper’s Magazine)

 

Bibliography

Novels
  • East Wind: West Wind (1930)
  • The Mother (1934)
  • House of Earth (1935):
    • The Good Earth (1931)
    • Sons (1932)
    • A House Divided (1935)
  • Now and Forever (1936-1937)
  • This Proud Heart (1938)
  • The Patriot (1939)
  • Other Gods (1941)
    A/K/A: An American Legend
  • Dragon Seed (1942)
  • China Gold (1942)
  • China Sky (1942)
  • The Promise (1943)
  • China Flight (1945)
  • Portrait of a Marriage (1945)
    A/K/A: Man’s Daily Bread
  • Pavilion of Women (1946)
  • Peony (1948)
  • Kinfolk (1949)
  • God’s Men (1951)
  • Sylvia (1951)
    A/K/A: No Time for Love
  • The Hidden Flower (1952)
  • Satan Never Sleeps (1952)
    – Initially movie script; outline by Leo McCarey.
  • Come, My Beloved (1953)
  • Imperial Woman (1956)
  • Letter from Peking (1957)
  • Command the Morning (1959)
  • The Living Reed (1963)
  • Death in the Castle (1965)
  • The Time Is Noon (1966-1967)
  • The New Year (1968)
  • The Three Daughters of Madame Liang (1969)
  • Mandala (1970)
  • The Goddess Abides (1972)
  • All Under Heaven (1973)
  • The Rainbow (1974)
Novellas, Short Story, Fairy Tale and Poetry Collections
  • Father Andrea (1930s)
    Also in The First Wife and Other Stories (Twenty-seven Stories)
  • The First Wife and Other Stories (1933)
  • Stories for Little Children (1940)
    A/K/A: When Fun Begins
  • Today and Forever (1941)
  • Twenty-Seven Stories (1943)
    A/K/A: Stories of China:

    • The First Wife and Other Stories
    • Today and Forever
  • Far and Near (1947)
  • Fourteen Stories (1961)
  • Hearts Come Home and Other Stories (1962)
    • The First Wife and Other Stories
    • Today and Forever
    • Far and Near
  • Escape at Midnight and Other Stories (1963)
  • Fairy Tales of the Orient (1965)
  • My Mother’s House (1965)
  • The Good Deed and Other Stories (1969)
  • Once Upon a Christmas (1972)
  • Words of Love (1974)
    Poetry, selected from Buck’s “Treasure Book” (diary).
  • East and West (1975)
  • Mrs. Stoner and the Sea and Other Works (1976)
  • Secrets of the Heart (1976)
  • The Lovers and Other Stories (1977)
  • The Woman Who Was Changed and Other Stories (1979)
Translation
  • All Men Are Brothers (1933)
    2 volumes; translated from the Chinese novel Shui Hu Chuan.
Juvenilia
  • The Young Revolutionist (1932)
  • Yu Lan: Flying Boy of China (1945)
  • The Chinese Children Next Door (1942)
  • The Water-Buffalo Children (1943)
  • The Dragon Fish (1944)
  • The Big Wave (1947)
  • One Bright Day (1950)
  • One Bright Day and Other Stories for Children (1952)
    • One Bright Day
    • The Chinese Children Next Door
    • The Water-Buffalo Children
    • The Dragon Fish
    • Yu Lan: Flying Boy of China
  • The Man Who Changed China: The Story of Sun Yet-sen (1953)
  • Johnny Jack and His Beginnings (1954)
  • The Beech Tree (1954)
    A/K/A: The Heart’s Beginning
  • My Several Worlds (1957)
  • The Christmas Miniature (1957)
  • The Christmas Ghost (1960)
  • Welcome Child (1964)
  • The Big Fight (1965)
  • The Little Fox in the Middle (1966)
  • The Water-Buffalo Children & The Dragon Fish (1966)
  • Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (1967)
  • The Beech Tree & Johnny Jack and His Beginnings (late 1960s)
  • The Chinese Story Teller (1971)
  • Mrs. Starling’s Problem (1972)
  • A Gift for the Children (1973)
    • Stories for Little Children
    • The Chinese Story Teller
    • The Christmas Ghost
    • The Christmas Miniature
    • The Chinese Children Next Door
    • The Water-Buffalo Children
    • The Beech Tree
  • The Old Demon (1982)
  • The Enemy (1986)
  • Little Red (1988)
Nonfiction: On Children’s Welfare
  • The Child Who Never Grew (1950)
  • The Joy of Children (1964)
  • Children for Adoption (1964)
  • The Gifts They Bring (1965)
  • A Community Success Story: The Founding of the Pearl Buck Center (1972)
Memoirs and Biographies
  • The Exile (1936)
    Biography of Buck’s mother, Caroline Stulting Sydenstricker
    – Written in 1921.
  • Fighting Angel: Portrait of a Soul (1936)
    Biography of Buck’s father, Absalom Sydenstricker.
  • The Spirit and the Flesh (1944)
    • Fighting Angel
    • The Exile
  • My Several Worlds: A Personal Record (1954)
  • A Bridge for Passing (1962)
Published Dialogues
  • Talk About Russia: With Masha Scott (1945)
  • Tell the People: Talks with James Yen about the Mass Education Movement (1945)
  • How it Happens: Talk About the German People, 1914 – 1933; with Erna von Pustau (1947)
  • American Argument: with Eslanda Goods Robeson (1949)
  • Friend to Friend: A Candid Exchange Between Pearl Buck and Carlos P. Romulo (1956)
  • For Spacious Skies: Journey in Dialogue, with Theodore F. Harris (1966)
Articles, Speeches, Correspondence
  • East and West and the Novel: Sources of the Early Chinese Novel (1932)
    – Two addresses.
  • Is There a Case for Foreign Missions? (1932)
  • The Chinese Novel (1939)
    – Nobel Prize Lecture (December 12, 1938).
  • Of Men and Women (1941)
  • American Unity and Asia (1942)
    A/K/A: Asia and Democracy
    – Letters, articles and speeches.
  • What America Means to Me (1943)
    – Letters, addresses, lectureand articles.
  • China In Black and White(1945)
    – Illustrated with Chinese woodcuts; commentary.
  • A Certain Star (1957)
  • The People of Japan (1966)
    – With Lyle Kenyon Engel; photographs by Stuart Fox.
  • To My Daughters, With Love (1967)
    – Commencement addresses and other writings.
  • China As I See It (1970)
    – Speeches, articles, letter and one new chapter.
  • The Kennedy Women: A Personal Appraisal (1970)
  • Pearl Buck’s America (1971)
  • The Story Bible (1971)
    – With L. K. Engel:

    • Volume I, The Old Testament
    • Volume II, The New Testament
  • China Past and Present (1972)
Cookbook
  • Pearl S. Buck’s Oriental Cookbook (1972)
    Recipes from 11 Oriental countries with introductions by Buck.
Writing as John Sedges
  • The Townsman (1945)
  • The Angry Wife (1947)
  • The Long Love (1949)
  • Bright Procession (1952)
  • Voices in the House (1953)
  • American Triptych (1958)
    • The Townsman
    • The Long Love
    • Voices in the House

 

A Selection of Quotes

The Good Earth

“The rich are always afraid.”

My Several Worlds

“Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance.”

What America Means To Me

“Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored – it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on.”

Of Men and Women

“A man is educated and turned out to work. But a woman is educated – and turned out to grass.”

“Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.”

America’s Medieval Women (Harper’s Magazine, August 1938)

“An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls – even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls – without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell.”

Find more quotes by Pearl S. Buck on Wikiquote and Goodreads.

 

Links