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On November 10, 1938, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Pearl S. Buck. From the article:
"Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck Biography
Author (1892–1973)
Updated:
Jun 30, 2019
Original:
Apr 27, 2017
Prolific author Pearl S. Buck earned a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth. She was also the fourth female to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Synopsis
Pearl S. Buck was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. In 1930, she published her first novel, East Wind, West Wind. Her next novel, The Good Earth, earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American female Nobel laureate. Concurrent with her writing career, she started the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, a humanitarian organization. She died on March 6, 1973, in Danby, Vermont.
Early Life
Pearl S. Buck was born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. At the time of her birth, her parents, both Presbyterian missionaries, were taking a leave from their work in China after some of Buck's older siblings had died of tropical disease. Buck's parents were so committed to their missionary work that they decided to go back to the Chinese village of Chinkiang with 5-month-old Pearl in tow.
Beginning at the age of 6, Buck was homeschooled by her mother for the early part of the day, and taught by a Chinese tutor during the afternoon. When she was 9 years old, the Boxer Rebellion forced Buck and her family to flee to Shanghai. Although her family returned to Chinkiang when the rebellion ended in 1901, Buck decided to attend boarding school in Shanghai in 1907. She completed her course load in 1909, and moved back to the United States in 1910 to study philosophy at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. After earning her bachelor's degree, Buck was offered a position as a psychology professor at her alma mater. A semester later, Buck returned to China to take care of her mother, who had fallen ill.
Personal Life
Back in China, Buck fell in love with an agricultural missionary named John Lossing Buck. The two were married in 1917. They spent most of their early marriage living in Nanking, where John taught agricultural theory. Buck too returned for a while to teach at universities; this time, English was her subject of expertise. But Buck spent the majority of her time in Nanking caring for her mentally disabled daughter, Carol, who was born in 1920. In 1925, Buck returned to America to pursue her master's degree in English at Cornell University. In 1929, she enrolled Carol at the Vineland Training School in New Jersey.
Pearl and John would eventually divorce in 1935, when she left him to marry Richard Walsh, her publishing agent. Though she let go of John Buck, she would keep his last name for the rest of her life.
Major Works and Pulitzer Prize
After graduate school, Pearl S. Buck returned to China yet again. It was 1926, both of her parents were ailing, and her family's finances were in dire straits. Buck decided to start writing in hopes of earning a better living.
In 1930, Buck published her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, focusing on China's difficult transition from old traditions to a new way of life. Her next and perhaps best-known novel, The Good Earth, earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The Good Earth highlights the life of Chinese peasants, a life that Buck had been privy to growing up in Chinkiang. After receiving the Pulitzer, Buck moved back to the United States permanently. In 1933, she went back to graduate school—this time at Yale University—and earned an additional master's degree. In 1938, she achieved the illustrious distinction of becoming the first American woman and fourth woman overall to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Buck continued to write prolifically thereafter, choosing China as the setting for the majority of her work. Her genres ranged from such popular novels-turned-movies as China Sky (1941) and The Dragon Seed (1942), to children's books like The Water-Buffalo Children (1943) and The Christmas Ghost (1960). Buck's body of work also includes non-fiction. Her final works include the non-fiction book China as I See It and a cookbook about Asian cuisine, Pearl S. Buck's Oriental Cookbook (1972).
Humanitarian Until Death
Concurrent with her writing career, Buck was active in humanitarian efforts to protect Asian Americans against racial intolerance by increasing awareness. She also strove to improve disadvantaged Asian Americans' (particularly children's) living conditions. Toward these ends, Buck founded the East and West Association in 1941.
Also in support of these causes, in 1949, Buck started the adoption agency Welcome House, which specialized in the adoption of Asian-American children. In 1964, she established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to further "address the issues of poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries." In 1973, she bequeathed her personal estate as the future headquarters of Pearl S. Buck International.
Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973, in Danby, Vermont. Today, she continues to be regarded as a legendary American writer and humanitarian.
"Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck Biography
Author (1892–1973)
Updated:
Jun 30, 2019
Original:
Apr 27, 2017
Prolific author Pearl S. Buck earned a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth. She was also the fourth female to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Synopsis
Pearl S. Buck was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. In 1930, she published her first novel, East Wind, West Wind. Her next novel, The Good Earth, earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American female Nobel laureate. Concurrent with her writing career, she started the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, a humanitarian organization. She died on March 6, 1973, in Danby, Vermont.
Early Life
Pearl S. Buck was born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. At the time of her birth, her parents, both Presbyterian missionaries, were taking a leave from their work in China after some of Buck's older siblings had died of tropical disease. Buck's parents were so committed to their missionary work that they decided to go back to the Chinese village of Chinkiang with 5-month-old Pearl in tow.
Beginning at the age of 6, Buck was homeschooled by her mother for the early part of the day, and taught by a Chinese tutor during the afternoon. When she was 9 years old, the Boxer Rebellion forced Buck and her family to flee to Shanghai. Although her family returned to Chinkiang when the rebellion ended in 1901, Buck decided to attend boarding school in Shanghai in 1907. She completed her course load in 1909, and moved back to the United States in 1910 to study philosophy at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. After earning her bachelor's degree, Buck was offered a position as a psychology professor at her alma mater. A semester later, Buck returned to China to take care of her mother, who had fallen ill.
Personal Life
Back in China, Buck fell in love with an agricultural missionary named John Lossing Buck. The two were married in 1917. They spent most of their early marriage living in Nanking, where John taught agricultural theory. Buck too returned for a while to teach at universities; this time, English was her subject of expertise. But Buck spent the majority of her time in Nanking caring for her mentally disabled daughter, Carol, who was born in 1920. In 1925, Buck returned to America to pursue her master's degree in English at Cornell University. In 1929, she enrolled Carol at the Vineland Training School in New Jersey.
Pearl and John would eventually divorce in 1935, when she left him to marry Richard Walsh, her publishing agent. Though she let go of John Buck, she would keep his last name for the rest of her life.
Major Works and Pulitzer Prize
After graduate school, Pearl S. Buck returned to China yet again. It was 1926, both of her parents were ailing, and her family's finances were in dire straits. Buck decided to start writing in hopes of earning a better living.
In 1930, Buck published her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, focusing on China's difficult transition from old traditions to a new way of life. Her next and perhaps best-known novel, The Good Earth, earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The Good Earth highlights the life of Chinese peasants, a life that Buck had been privy to growing up in Chinkiang. After receiving the Pulitzer, Buck moved back to the United States permanently. In 1933, she went back to graduate school—this time at Yale University—and earned an additional master's degree. In 1938, she achieved the illustrious distinction of becoming the first American woman and fourth woman overall to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Buck continued to write prolifically thereafter, choosing China as the setting for the majority of her work. Her genres ranged from such popular novels-turned-movies as China Sky (1941) and The Dragon Seed (1942), to children's books like The Water-Buffalo Children (1943) and The Christmas Ghost (1960). Buck's body of work also includes non-fiction. Her final works include the non-fiction book China as I See It and a cookbook about Asian cuisine, Pearl S. Buck's Oriental Cookbook (1972).
Humanitarian Until Death
Concurrent with her writing career, Buck was active in humanitarian efforts to protect Asian Americans against racial intolerance by increasing awareness. She also strove to improve disadvantaged Asian Americans' (particularly children's) living conditions. Toward these ends, Buck founded the East and West Association in 1941.
Also in support of these causes, in 1949, Buck started the adoption agency Welcome House, which specialized in the adoption of Asian-American children. In 1964, she established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to further "address the issues of poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries." In 1973, she bequeathed her personal estate as the future headquarters of Pearl S. Buck International.
Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973, in Danby, Vermont. Today, she continues to be regarded as a legendary American writer and humanitarian.
Pearl S. Buck
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Novelist Pearl S. Buck Interview (Merv Griffin Show 1966)
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning novelist Pearl S. Buck talks with Merv about her newest book, her charity work helping Asian orphans fathered by US servicem...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on November 10, 1938, American writer and novelist Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature for her novel The Good Earth.
She was the daughter of missionaries and spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, China.
Novelist Pearl S. Buck Interview (Merv Griffin Show 1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMED93CAkE
Image:
1. Pearl S Buck.
2. Pearl S Buck Nobel Prize picture.
3. Pearl S. Buck as a child in China
Biographies:
1. Nobel Prize autobiography
2. womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/pearl-buck
1. Background from nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1938/buck/biographical/
"Pearl Buck Biographical
Pearl Buck (1892-1973) was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. She grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries, but was educated at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. After her graduation she returned to China and lived there until 1934 with the exception of a year spent at Cornell University, where she took an M.A. in 1926. Pearl Buck began to write in the twenties; her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, appeared in 1930. It was followed by The Good Earth (1931), Sons (1932), and A House Divided (1935), together forming a trilogy on the saga of the family of Wang. The Good Earth stood on the American list of «best sellers» for a long time and earned her several awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Medal. She also published The First Wife and Other Stories (1933), All Men are Brothers (a translation of the Chinese novel Shui Hu Chuan) (1933), The Mother (1934), and This Proud Heart (1938). The biographies of her mother and father, The Exile and Fighting Angel, were published in 1936 and later brought out together under the title of The Spirit and the Flesh (1944). The Time Is Now, a fictionalized account of the author’s emotional experiences, although written much earlier, did not appear in print until 1967.
Pearl Buck’s works after 1938 are too many to mention. Her novels have continued to deal with the confrontation of East and West, her interest spreading to such countries as India and Korea. Her novelist’s interest in the interplay of East and West has also led to some activity in political journalism.
Pearl Buck has been active in many welfare organizations; in particular she set up an agency for the adoption of Asian-American children (Welcome House, Inc.) and has taken an active interest in retarded children (The Child Who Never Grew, 1950).
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above."
2. Background from womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/pearl-buck
Pearl S. Buck
1892-1973
By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017
Well-known author, Pearl S. Buck wrote multiple books and short stories throughout her lifetime, many of which focused on her experiences in China. She was also a strong advocate of women’s rights and civil rights and was dedicated to supporting the welfare of Asian children.
Born into a family of missionaries on June 26, 1892, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck spent her first few months in Hillsborough, West Virginia. However, soon after her birth, her parents returned to Zhenjiang, China, where they were working as Southern Presbyterian missionaries. As missionaries, Buck’s parents did not have a great deal of money. Her family, which included six brothers and sisters, was poor and often lived in old, dilapidated houses. Growing up in China, Buck gained a great appreciation for Chinese people and their culture. She was raised to be bilingual, tutored in both English and Chinese.
After finishing school in China in 1911, Buck attended Randolph Macon Women’s College, now known simply as Randolph College, in Lynchburg, Virginia on a charity scholarship. Her parents thought the college a suitable choice because of its Christian focus and because Buck’s brother, Edgar, lived in Lynchburg. She found the transition from China to the United States difficult, but soon adapted herself to college life. She was active in student groups and governing bodies. She became a member of Kappa Delta, wrote stories and poems for the college’s magazine, and served as the treasurer of her sophomore class and the president of her junior class.
In 1914, she graduated from college and returned to China. During the following year, she met her husband and moved to Nanjing, where she taught English literature in the universities based in the city. In 1924, Buck and her husband took a year off from teaching to return to the United States. During that time, she earned a Master of Arts degree in English at Cornell University before returning to China.
Buck witnessed the changes to everyday life while living in China, particularly in relation to the Boxer Rebellion and the rise of the nationalist movement. It was her early life and experiences in China that formed the bases of much of her writing, including her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, published in 1930. Her second novel, The Good Earth, was completed the next year and became a critically acclaimed best-seller. Literary awards for her writing soon followed. In 1932, Buck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and in 1935 she won the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinguished Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the following year, she was elected to the membership of the Academy. Her award-winning story was turned into a Broadway play and in 1937 it was adapted into a film. Her outstanding achievements in literature were subsequently recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee in 1938, making Buck the first American women to be award the Nobel Prize in Literature.
When she returned to the United States in 1935, she became an outspoken proponent of civil rights and women’s rights. Buck also worked to support the welfare and adoption of Asian children. She regularly wrote articles for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Crisis magazine and the National Urban League’s Opportunity, calling for an end to racism and discrimination. She also served as a trustee for Howard University for many years.
After war broke out between Japan and China in 1937, Buck along with her second husband, Richard Walsh, worked to provide relief and raise awareness about what was happening in Asia. Together, they formed the China Emergency Relief Committee in 1940, which helped send funds to the country for medical supplies, food, and clothing. In the spring of 1941, she became the chairwomen of United China Relief (UCR) to raise financial support for China. At a fund-raising event that year, Chinese Ambassador Hu Shih presented Buck with the Order of Jade, an award given in recognition of her work for his country. That same year, Buck and her husband bought Asia magazine, providing writers a place to discuss the current political events and culture of Asia. Also in 1941, she and Walsh founded the East-West Association, which sought to raise awareness about the East in American society.
Throughout World War II, Buck continued to champion equal rights for minorities and women. In 1942, she chaired the newly created Committee against Racial Discrimination, which was part of the American Civil Liberties Union. This committee advocated for equal employment opportunities, the establishment of federal anti-lynching laws, and an end to segregation in the military. For her work on civil rights, Howard University awarded Buck an honorary Doctor of Law degree in 1942. Buck was a firm supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, which sought to guarantee equal rights to all people regardless of gender. She condemned the internment of Japanese Americans during the war. Buck also sought to overturn Chinese exclusion laws, which barred Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. Testifying in Congress in May 1943, she urged lawmakers to repeal the laws which hindered America’s wartime ally, China. After further debate, Congress subsequently abolished the Chinese exclusion laws in October 1943. She also advocated for the independence of India from Britain. In 1944, Buck was made honorary president of the India league of America.
As part of her war efforts, Buck joined the War Writers’ Board, which was closely aligned with the Office of War Information (OWI). The War Writers’ Board supported the OWI by producing propaganda in a wide variety of media, including in film, radio, newspapers. Buck lent her talents to the organizations to help fight fascism. She also served on the Board’s Advisory Council along with many other famous writers, journalists, and historians.
The issue of adoption was a personal cause for Buck. She had given birth to a girl, Carol, in 1921. However, her daughter developed phenylketonuria resulting in mental development issues. Buck also had to have a hysterectomy, making her unable to have any further children. So in 1925, she and her husband adopted a daughter, Janice, and subsequently adopted other children in the years that followed. Buck’s personal experiences with motherhood and her life in China, resulted in the creation of Welcome House in 1949. This organization, which she co-founded, was the first international, interracial adoption agency. It focused on placing Asian children with families in the United States. Continuing in her work for children, she also formed the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in 1964. The mission of the organization was to provide in-country support to Asian children who were not eligible for overseas adoption. The Opportunity House humanitarian assistance program was set up by the Foundation to support the health, welfare and education of children and families living in China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Buck died on March 6, 1973, leaving a legacy of literature and philanthropy. She wrote over seventy books, which include novels, translations of Chinese literature, children’s literature, and biographies. After her death, both her birthplace and her later home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania were turned into historic sites to preserve Buck’s legacy. She was honored by the US Post Office in 1983, when she was included in the organization’s Great Americans series of stamps. Buck’s alma mater, Randolph College, created the Pearl S. Buck Award which is given to women whose work captures the same principles and values associated with Buck’s diverse philanthropic activities."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SSG Donald H "Don" Bates LTC John Shaw
She was the daughter of missionaries and spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, China.
Novelist Pearl S. Buck Interview (Merv Griffin Show 1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMED93CAkE
Image:
1. Pearl S Buck.
2. Pearl S Buck Nobel Prize picture.
3. Pearl S. Buck as a child in China
Biographies:
1. Nobel Prize autobiography
2. womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/pearl-buck
1. Background from nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1938/buck/biographical/
"Pearl Buck Biographical
Pearl Buck (1892-1973) was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. She grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries, but was educated at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. After her graduation she returned to China and lived there until 1934 with the exception of a year spent at Cornell University, where she took an M.A. in 1926. Pearl Buck began to write in the twenties; her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, appeared in 1930. It was followed by The Good Earth (1931), Sons (1932), and A House Divided (1935), together forming a trilogy on the saga of the family of Wang. The Good Earth stood on the American list of «best sellers» for a long time and earned her several awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Medal. She also published The First Wife and Other Stories (1933), All Men are Brothers (a translation of the Chinese novel Shui Hu Chuan) (1933), The Mother (1934), and This Proud Heart (1938). The biographies of her mother and father, The Exile and Fighting Angel, were published in 1936 and later brought out together under the title of The Spirit and the Flesh (1944). The Time Is Now, a fictionalized account of the author’s emotional experiences, although written much earlier, did not appear in print until 1967.
Pearl Buck’s works after 1938 are too many to mention. Her novels have continued to deal with the confrontation of East and West, her interest spreading to such countries as India and Korea. Her novelist’s interest in the interplay of East and West has also led to some activity in political journalism.
Pearl Buck has been active in many welfare organizations; in particular she set up an agency for the adoption of Asian-American children (Welcome House, Inc.) and has taken an active interest in retarded children (The Child Who Never Grew, 1950).
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above."
2. Background from womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/pearl-buck
Pearl S. Buck
1892-1973
By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017
Well-known author, Pearl S. Buck wrote multiple books and short stories throughout her lifetime, many of which focused on her experiences in China. She was also a strong advocate of women’s rights and civil rights and was dedicated to supporting the welfare of Asian children.
Born into a family of missionaries on June 26, 1892, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck spent her first few months in Hillsborough, West Virginia. However, soon after her birth, her parents returned to Zhenjiang, China, where they were working as Southern Presbyterian missionaries. As missionaries, Buck’s parents did not have a great deal of money. Her family, which included six brothers and sisters, was poor and often lived in old, dilapidated houses. Growing up in China, Buck gained a great appreciation for Chinese people and their culture. She was raised to be bilingual, tutored in both English and Chinese.
After finishing school in China in 1911, Buck attended Randolph Macon Women’s College, now known simply as Randolph College, in Lynchburg, Virginia on a charity scholarship. Her parents thought the college a suitable choice because of its Christian focus and because Buck’s brother, Edgar, lived in Lynchburg. She found the transition from China to the United States difficult, but soon adapted herself to college life. She was active in student groups and governing bodies. She became a member of Kappa Delta, wrote stories and poems for the college’s magazine, and served as the treasurer of her sophomore class and the president of her junior class.
In 1914, she graduated from college and returned to China. During the following year, she met her husband and moved to Nanjing, where she taught English literature in the universities based in the city. In 1924, Buck and her husband took a year off from teaching to return to the United States. During that time, she earned a Master of Arts degree in English at Cornell University before returning to China.
Buck witnessed the changes to everyday life while living in China, particularly in relation to the Boxer Rebellion and the rise of the nationalist movement. It was her early life and experiences in China that formed the bases of much of her writing, including her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, published in 1930. Her second novel, The Good Earth, was completed the next year and became a critically acclaimed best-seller. Literary awards for her writing soon followed. In 1932, Buck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and in 1935 she won the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinguished Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the following year, she was elected to the membership of the Academy. Her award-winning story was turned into a Broadway play and in 1937 it was adapted into a film. Her outstanding achievements in literature were subsequently recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee in 1938, making Buck the first American women to be award the Nobel Prize in Literature.
When she returned to the United States in 1935, she became an outspoken proponent of civil rights and women’s rights. Buck also worked to support the welfare and adoption of Asian children. She regularly wrote articles for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Crisis magazine and the National Urban League’s Opportunity, calling for an end to racism and discrimination. She also served as a trustee for Howard University for many years.
After war broke out between Japan and China in 1937, Buck along with her second husband, Richard Walsh, worked to provide relief and raise awareness about what was happening in Asia. Together, they formed the China Emergency Relief Committee in 1940, which helped send funds to the country for medical supplies, food, and clothing. In the spring of 1941, she became the chairwomen of United China Relief (UCR) to raise financial support for China. At a fund-raising event that year, Chinese Ambassador Hu Shih presented Buck with the Order of Jade, an award given in recognition of her work for his country. That same year, Buck and her husband bought Asia magazine, providing writers a place to discuss the current political events and culture of Asia. Also in 1941, she and Walsh founded the East-West Association, which sought to raise awareness about the East in American society.
Throughout World War II, Buck continued to champion equal rights for minorities and women. In 1942, she chaired the newly created Committee against Racial Discrimination, which was part of the American Civil Liberties Union. This committee advocated for equal employment opportunities, the establishment of federal anti-lynching laws, and an end to segregation in the military. For her work on civil rights, Howard University awarded Buck an honorary Doctor of Law degree in 1942. Buck was a firm supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, which sought to guarantee equal rights to all people regardless of gender. She condemned the internment of Japanese Americans during the war. Buck also sought to overturn Chinese exclusion laws, which barred Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. Testifying in Congress in May 1943, she urged lawmakers to repeal the laws which hindered America’s wartime ally, China. After further debate, Congress subsequently abolished the Chinese exclusion laws in October 1943. She also advocated for the independence of India from Britain. In 1944, Buck was made honorary president of the India league of America.
As part of her war efforts, Buck joined the War Writers’ Board, which was closely aligned with the Office of War Information (OWI). The War Writers’ Board supported the OWI by producing propaganda in a wide variety of media, including in film, radio, newspapers. Buck lent her talents to the organizations to help fight fascism. She also served on the Board’s Advisory Council along with many other famous writers, journalists, and historians.
The issue of adoption was a personal cause for Buck. She had given birth to a girl, Carol, in 1921. However, her daughter developed phenylketonuria resulting in mental development issues. Buck also had to have a hysterectomy, making her unable to have any further children. So in 1925, she and her husband adopted a daughter, Janice, and subsequently adopted other children in the years that followed. Buck’s personal experiences with motherhood and her life in China, resulted in the creation of Welcome House in 1949. This organization, which she co-founded, was the first international, interracial adoption agency. It focused on placing Asian children with families in the United States. Continuing in her work for children, she also formed the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in 1964. The mission of the organization was to provide in-country support to Asian children who were not eligible for overseas adoption. The Opportunity House humanitarian assistance program was set up by the Foundation to support the health, welfare and education of children and families living in China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Buck died on March 6, 1973, leaving a legacy of literature and philanthropy. She wrote over seventy books, which include novels, translations of Chinese literature, children’s literature, and biographies. After her death, both her birthplace and her later home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania were turned into historic sites to preserve Buck’s legacy. She was honored by the US Post Office in 1983, when she was included in the organization’s Great Americans series of stamps. Buck’s alma mater, Randolph College, created the Pearl S. Buck Award which is given to women whose work captures the same principles and values associated with Buck’s diverse philanthropic activities."
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