**Pearl Buck (1892–1973)** was an American novelist, essayist, and political activist who was awarded the **Nobel Prize in Literature** in 1938. She was born on **June 26, 1892**, in Hillsboro, Virginia, to American Presbyterian missionary parents who were serving in China. Shortly after her birth, they returned to China, where Buck spent most of her childhood. She learned English from her mother and Chinese from a private tutor, becoming fluent in both languages and deeply familiar with Chinese culture.
From 1911 to 1914, Buck studied at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia before returning to China, where she briefly worked as a Presbyterian missionary. She eventually resigned from missionary work after disagreeing with the mission's fundamentalist views. In 1917, she married **John Lossing Buck**, an American agricultural economist, and the couple later taught at Chinese universities.
In 1920, Buck gave birth to a daughter, Carol, who suffered from **phenylketonuria (PKU)**, a metabolic disorder that caused an intellectual disability. Buck later wrote movingly about this experience. Her mother died in 1921, and in 1924 Buck traveled to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Cornell University. The following year, she and her husband adopted a baby girl before returning to China.
The political situation in China deteriorated dramatically in 1927 during the conflict between Nationalists and Communists. Buck and her family narrowly escaped death after being sheltered by a poor Chinese family, although their home was looted. They remained in Asia for several more years before leaving permanently in 1934. That same year, Buck divorced John Lossing Buck and later married her publisher, **Richard J. Walsh**, with whom she spent the rest of her life in Pennsylvania.
Throughout her prolific career, Buck wrote dozens of novels, short stories, biographies, essays, and works on social issues. Drawing on her experiences in China, she compared Eastern and Western societies with remarkable balance, emphasizing that each culture had valuable lessons to offer and that neither was inherently superior. She also wrote passionately against racism, discrimination, and war, while advocating for greater understanding between cultures.
Buck became a leading humanitarian and champion of children's rights. At a time when few families in the United States were willing to adopt children of Asian or mixed-race heritage, she founded **Welcome House**, the first international interracial adoption agency. She also condemned the widespread abandonment of children fathered by American servicemen in Asia, highlighting the discrimination they faced in both Asian and American societies.
During China's Cultural Revolution, Buck was denounced as a cultural imperialist and was forbidden from re-entering the country she considered her true home. This deeply saddened her, as China had profoundly shaped both her life and her writing. Pearl Buck died of lung cancer on **March 6, 1973**, leaving behind a literary and humanitarian legacy that continues to inspire readers around the world.
