Pearl Buck is renowned for her best-selling and important novel, The Good Earth (1931) based on her experience living in China with missionary parents. For her work she was awarded both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize! It is not well known that she was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia and also wrote biographies of both of her West Virginia parents or that she was an activist for human rights. This book of essays is an attempt to familiarize readers with all aspects of Pearl Buck’s career. Notably, it includes two essays by Chinese scholars, as well as essays from American experts in many of the fields where Pearl Buck contributed. “The strength of this collection lies in the breadth and variety of the subjects discussed, from US foreign policy to literary and political controversies in China to Pearl Buck’s accomplishments and influence as a writer and as a social and political activist. Taken collectively, these essays provide a rewarding survey.” - Peter Conn. Jay Cole is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation and works as a senior advisor to the President of West Virginia University. John R. Haddad chairs the American studies program at Penn State Harrisburg. This is his third book dealing with the relationship between America and China.
Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2019. 197 pages with an index and notes after each essay. Trade paperback