Pearl S. Buck

American writer (1892–1973)

Fame75.3
Momentum0.4
Writers rank#188

Source-basedFalling

Fame75.3
Momentum0.4
Writers rank#188
Wikipedia27.5K

Lived 1892–1973, aged 81United States

United States WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
110 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1892–1973
Aged 81
Known for
The Good Earth
1937

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

She wrote the biggest American novel of the early Depression and became the first U.S. woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature — all while translating a China most Americans had never seen into prose they couldn't stop reading.

Biography

About

Born in West Virginia in June 1892, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was carried to China at four months old by her missionary parents. She grew up in Zhenjiang, summered in a villa on Mount Lu, and decided during those childhood pilgrimages that she would write. After graduating from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia, she returned to China, married John Lossing Buck in 1914, and served as a Presbyterian missionary until her convictions shifted and she resigned amid the Fundamentalist–modernist controversy. The Good Earth, published in 1931, became the best-selling U.S. novel two years run…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck

said1966

[On the Chinese] They are marvellous friends and frightful enemies.

— TV interview, The Merv Griffin Show, RITY Archive (1966)

Pearl S. Buck

said1964

What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect begins, therefore, before he is born.

— Children for Adoption (1964). Ch. 3

Pearl S. Buck

said1962

All things are possible until they are proved impossible — and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.

— A Bridge for Passing (1962)

Pearl S. Buck

said1962

One does not live half a life in Asia without return. When it would be I did not know, nor even where it would be, or to what cause.

— A Bridge for Passing (1962)

Pearl S. Buck

said26 Apr 1959

I love people. I love my family, my children … but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.

— As quoted in The New York Post (26 April 1959)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Gallery