Our final author in the Women’s History Month series is Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973). Pearl S. Buck was an inspirational American writer who is most widely known for her 1932 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Good Earth.
A great deal of Buck’s childhood and adult life was spent in China. Many of her novels describe the peasant life in China, and try to bridge the gap between Americans’ views of Chinese people and reality. Buck changed history with her first-hand accounts of life in China and progressive humanitarian efforts that are visible in her written work. 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.”
Buck 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. She established Welcome House, Inc., the first international, interracial adoption agency. In nearly five decades of work, Welcome House has placed over five thousand children. In 1964, to support children who were not eligible for adoption, Buck established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation (now called Pearl S. Buck International) to “address poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries.” In 1965, she opened the Opportunity Center and Orphanage in South Korea, and later offices were opened in Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. When establishing Opportunity House, Buck said, “The purpose… is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children.”
Pearl Buck died in March, 1973, just two months before her 81st birthday,
