Pearl S Buck
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) was a Nobel Prize-winning author who made Bucks County, Pennsylvania, her home for over four decades, her residence at Green Hills Farm establishing the Philadelphia region as center of one of the twentieth century's most significant literary careers. Though born in West Virginia and raised primarily in China, Buck's choice of the Philadelphia area for her permanent American residence demonstrated the region's appeal to literary figures while her work there produced novels, activism, and institutional legacy that continued beyond her death. Her Nobel Prize for Literature (1938), the first awarded to an American woman, recognized achievement that the Philadelphia region witnessed during her most productive years.[1]
Path to Pennsylvania
[edit | edit source]Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia, but spent most of her childhood and young adulthood in China, where her missionary parents had settled. Her upbringing in China provided the material that her most celebrated work would explore, her understanding of Chinese society informing novels that introduced Western readers to Asian perspectives. Her return to America in the 1930s, following divorce from her first husband, brought her to the Philadelphia region where she would establish permanent residence.[2]
Her purchase of Green Hills Farm in Perkasie, Bucks County, in 1935 established the home she would maintain for nearly forty years. The stone farmhouse and surrounding acreage provided the domestic base from which her literary and humanitarian work proceeded. Her marriage to publisher Richard Walsh and her adoption of numerous children of mixed racial heritage transformed the farm into a household whose diversity reflected her humanitarian commitments. The Philadelphia region, with its publishing industry and cultural institutions, provided the context her career required.[1]
Her choice of Bucks County placed her among the artists and writers who had found the region congenial—the New Hope art colony nearby, the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle demonstrating the area's cultural sophistication. The rural setting provided retreat from urban demands while proximity to Philadelphia and New York enabled the publishing and cultural connections her career required. Her decades in Bucks County demonstrated that significant literary careers could unfold outside urban centers, the region's appeal evident in her long residence.[2]
Literary Achievement
[edit | edit source]Buck's literary career produced over seventy books, including "The Good Earth" (1931), which won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the best-selling American novels. Her depiction of Chinese peasant life, informed by her childhood immersion in Chinese culture, introduced Western readers to perspectives that previous literature had rarely provided. The Nobel Prize for Literature (1938) recognized "her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." Her Bucks County residence had begun only three years before the Nobel recognition, the farm becoming her base as her international reputation grew.[1]
Her subsequent work extended beyond Chinese subjects to address themes including racial prejudice, women's rights, and international understanding. Her novels set in America, her biographies, and her children's books demonstrated range that her China work might have obscured. Her writing productivity during the Bucks County years was extraordinary, the farm providing the stability that sustained her output. Her work's critical reputation declined during her lifetime, academic fashion turning against the accessible style that had made her popular, though her significance in introducing Asian perspectives to American readers remains acknowledged.[2]
Her humanitarian work, conducted alongside her literary career, included founding the first international interracial adoption agency and establishing the Pearl S. Buck Foundation for children fathered by American servicemen in Asia. These institutional achievements, some headquartered at Green Hills Farm, demonstrated that her commitment to international understanding extended beyond writing to practical action. The Philadelphia region's cultural infrastructure supported these efforts while her fame drew attention that less celebrated advocates might not have commanded.[1]
Legacy
[edit | edit source]Pearl S. Buck died on March 6, 1973, and was buried at Green Hills Farm, the property she had made her home. The farm, now operated as the Pearl S. Buck House, preserves her residence and hosts programs continuing her humanitarian legacy. Her Bucks County decades established the region's connection to one of American literature's most significant twentieth-century figures, even if her critical reputation has fluctuated since her death. Buck represents what the Philadelphia region could attract and sustain—literary achievement of the highest recognition, humanitarian commitment of practical significance, and institutional legacy that continues beyond the individual life.[2]