Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, a novelist, wrote many stories, books, novels, collections of stories, anthologies, a biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, and children's literature influenced by China, where she lived for about the first forty years of her life. Pearl went to college in Georgia, but shortly returned to China after graduating in 1914. After moving back, she met and married John Lossing Buck in 1917. The couple moved to the impoverished community of Nanhsuchou in the rural province of Anhwei, where Pearl would later gather the materials to write her award winning novel The Good Earth and other novels/stories. The Bucks had their first child, Carol, born in 1921, who was found mentally retarded because of a uterine tumor that was discovered during delivery. Pearl then under went a hysterectomy to remove the tumor. In 1925, the couple adopted a baby girl, but ended up getting a divorce eighteen years later because they had been unhappy since the beginning of the marriage. Both of the Bucks taught at Nanking University where they lived on campus. In 1921, Pearl's mother died. As a result, her father moved in with them. Later came the Nanking Incident; the Bucks went into hiding for a day, but were then rescued and taken to Unzen, Japan where they lived for the next year until returning to Nanking although the area was still dangerously unsettled.
Pearl published essays in magazines such as Nation, The Chinese Recorder, Asia, and Atlantic Monthly. Her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, was published by John Day Company in 1930. The publisher at the company, Richard Walsh, would later become Pearl's second husband in 1935. In 1931, John Day published Pearl's second novel, The Good Earth which will soon become the best selling book of 1931 and 1932 and also win the Pulitzer Prize and Howells Medal in 1935. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl Comfort Syndenstricker Buck was eighty-one and had over seventy books and many different genres of literature published. Pearl died on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont from lung cancer.
Pearl published essays in magazines such as Nation, The Chinese Recorder, Asia, and Atlantic Monthly. Her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, was published by John Day Company in 1930. The publisher at the company, Richard Walsh, would later become Pearl's second husband in 1935. In 1931, John Day published Pearl's second novel, The Good Earth which will soon become the best selling book of 1931 and 1932 and also win the Pulitzer Prize and Howells Medal in 1935. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl Comfort Syndenstricker Buck was eighty-one and had over seventy books and many different genres of literature published. Pearl died on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont from lung cancer.