PEARL S(YDENSTRICKER) BUCK
Name: Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
Born: 26 June 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia, United States
Died: 6 March 1973 Danby, Vermont, United States
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, most familiarly known as Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 -
March 6, 1973), was a prolific American writer who won a Nobel Prize in
Literature and a Pulitzer Prize.
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia to
Caroline (Stulting; 1857-1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker, a Southern
Presbyterian missionary. The family was sent to Zhenjiang, China in 1892 when
Pearl was 3 months old. She was raised in China and was tutored by a Confucian
scholar named Mr. Kung. She was taught English as a second language by her
mother and tutor.
The Boxer Rebellion greatly affected Pearl Buck and her family. Buck wrote that
during this time, her eight-year-old childhood split apart. Her Chinese
friends deserted her and her family, and there were not as many Western visitors
as there once were. The streets [of China] were alive with rumors- many based
on fact- of brutality to missionaries Buck's father was a missionary, so Buck's
mother, her little sister, and herself were evacuated to the relative safety
of Shanghai, where they spent nearly a year as refugees (The Good Earth,
Introduction) In July 1901, Buck and her family sailed to San Francisco. Not
until the following year did the Sydenstrickers return to China.
In 1910, she left China once again for America to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, where she would earn her degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1914. She then
returned to China and married an agricultural economist missionary, John Lossing
Buck, on May 13, 1917. She lived with him in a small town in north China in the
region she described later as "The Good Earth." She served in China as a
Presbyterian missionary from 1914 until 1933. Her views later became highly
controversial in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy, leading to her
resignation as a missionary.
In 1920, she and John had a daughter, Carol, who was afflicted with
phenylketonuria. The small family then moved to Nanjing, where Pearl taught
English literature at the University of Nanking. In 1925, the Bucks adopted
Janice (later surnamed Walsh). In 1926, she left China and returned to the
United States for a short time in order to earn her Masters degree from Cornell
University.
From 1920 to 1933, Pearl and John made their home in Nanking (Nanjing), on the
campus of Nanking University, where both had teaching positions. In 1921, Pearl's
mother died, and shortly afterwards her father moved in with the Bucks. The
tragedies and dislocations which Pearl suffered in the 1920s reached a climax in
March 1927, in the violence known as the "Nanking Incident." In a confused
battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, Communist
forces, and assorted warlords, several Westerners were murdered. The Bucks spent
a terrified day in hiding, after which they were rescued by American gunboats.
After a trip downriver to Shanghai, the Buck family sailed to Unzen, Japan,
where they spent the following year. They later moved back to Nanking, though
conditions remained dangerously unsettled.
Buck wrote about her experiences in China from her home in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. In 1935, she bought a sixty-acre homestead she called Green Hills
Farm and moved into the one hundred year-old farmhouse on the property with her
second husband and their family of six children.
Green Hills Farm is where Buck spent thirty-eight years of her life, raising her
family, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening. She completed
many works while living in Pennsylvania, such as This Proud Heart (1938), The
Patriot (1939), Today and Forever (1941), and The Child Who Never Grew (1950).
Name: Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
Born: 26 June 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia, United States
Died: 6 March 1973 Danby, Vermont, United States
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, most familiarly known as Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 -
March 6, 1973), was a prolific American writer who won a Nobel Prize in
Literature and a Pulitzer Prize.
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia to
Caroline (Stulting; 1857-1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker, a Southern
Presbyterian missionary. The family was sent to Zhenjiang, China in 1892 when
Pearl was 3 months old. She was raised in China and was tutored by a Confucian
scholar named Mr. Kung. She was taught English as a second language by her
mother and tutor.
The Boxer Rebellion greatly affected Pearl Buck and her family. Buck wrote that
during this time, her eight-year-old childhood split apart. Her Chinese
friends deserted her and her family, and there were not as many Western visitors
as there once were. The streets [of China] were alive with rumors- many based
on fact- of brutality to missionaries Buck's father was a missionary, so Buck's
mother, her little sister, and herself were evacuated to the relative safety
of Shanghai, where they spent nearly a year as refugees (The Good Earth,
Introduction) In July 1901, Buck and her family sailed to San Francisco. Not
until the following year did the Sydenstrickers return to China.
In 1910, she left China once again for America to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, where she would earn her degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1914. She then
returned to China and married an agricultural economist missionary, John Lossing
Buck, on May 13, 1917. She lived with him in a small town in north China in the
region she described later as "The Good Earth." She served in China as a
Presbyterian missionary from 1914 until 1933. Her views later became highly
controversial in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy, leading to her
resignation as a missionary.
In 1920, she and John had a daughter, Carol, who was afflicted with
phenylketonuria. The small family then moved to Nanjing, where Pearl taught
English literature at the University of Nanking. In 1925, the Bucks adopted
Janice (later surnamed Walsh). In 1926, she left China and returned to the
United States for a short time in order to earn her Masters degree from Cornell
University.
From 1920 to 1933, Pearl and John made their home in Nanking (Nanjing), on the
campus of Nanking University, where both had teaching positions. In 1921, Pearl's
mother died, and shortly afterwards her father moved in with the Bucks. The
tragedies and dislocations which Pearl suffered in the 1920s reached a climax in
March 1927, in the violence known as the "Nanking Incident." In a confused
battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, Communist
forces, and assorted warlords, several Westerners were murdered. The Bucks spent
a terrified day in hiding, after which they were rescued by American gunboats.
After a trip downriver to Shanghai, the Buck family sailed to Unzen, Japan,
where they spent the following year. They later moved back to Nanking, though
conditions remained dangerously unsettled.
Buck wrote about her experiences in China from her home in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. In 1935, she bought a sixty-acre homestead she called Green Hills
Farm and moved into the one hundred year-old farmhouse on the property with her
second husband and their family of six children.
Green Hills Farm is where Buck spent thirty-eight years of her life, raising her
family, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening. She completed
many works while living in Pennsylvania, such as This Proud Heart (1938), The
Patriot (1939), Today and Forever (1941), and The Child Who Never Grew (1950).