American · 1892–1973
Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938 for "her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China." "The Good Earth" (1931) won the Pulitzer Prize, bringing Chinese village life to American readers with unprecedented sympathy. Buck was raised in China by missionary parents and lived there for forty years. Her reputation has fluctuated—celebrated in her time, questioned later, now being reconsidered.