Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography

One of the most popular novelists of the twentieth century, winner of a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for Literature and an active social and political campaigner, particularly in the field of women\'s issues and Asian-American relations, Pearl Buck has, until now, remained ‘hidden in public view’. Best known, perhaps, as the prolific author of The Good Earth, Buck led a career which extended well beyond her eighty works of fiction and non-fiction and deep into the public sphere. In this critically acclaimed biography, Peter Conn retrieves Pearl Buck from the footnotes of literary and cultural history and reinstates her as a figure of compelling and uncommon significance in twentieth-century literary, cultural and political history.

• Hardback received outstanding review coverage • First biography of a major figure - winner of a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize

Preface: Rediscovering Pearl Buck; 1. Missionary childhood; 2. New worlds; 3. Winds of change; 4. The Good Earth; 5. An exile’s return; 6. The prize; 7. Wartime; 8. Losing battles; 9. Pearl Sydenstricker.

‘A fascinating book and one that is, for all its scholarly apparatus and methodical presentation of data, as much of a page turner as anything Buck ever wrote ... Peter Conn’s biography is an indispensable resource.’ New York Times Book Review

‘Peter Conn, Buck’s biographer, has done an amazing job of reminding us about Pearl Buck, and about our own recent past. Conn came to this project not through her books ... but through one of Buck’s agencies. He’s responded, paid his debt, with almost Chinese filial piety, in writing this elegant, absorbing book.’ Washington Post

‘Expertly written, not only a biography but as political history as well.’ Library Journal

‘With straightforward prose and balanced assessment of her accomplishments, Conn convinces us that Pearl Buck was a great person indeed.’ Booklist

‘[T]his brilliantly conceived biography steers a sympathetic yet intelligently balanced course, revealing in fascinating detail the gripping life story of a compelling woman.’ Publishers Weekly