Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck

Born: 1892

Died: 1973

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

Randolph-Macon Women's College (now Randolph College) BA Philosophy 1914; Cornell University MA English Literature 1926; Yale University MA

""I am an American by birth and by ancestry", but "my earliest knowledge of story, of how to tell and write stories, came to me in China." (wikipedia); "The purpose [of Opportunity House]... is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children." (wikipedia); “The test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members” (pearlsbuck.org); "In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write." (biography.com); "I am not a humanitarian,” she protested in 1969. “It's just that a writer must be involved in the mainstream of life in order to write, and I cannot endure disorder in any form. When I become involved and find a situation that is not right, then I must try to do something to change it. But it is the artist's sense of order that leads me to undertake such a cause as displaced children, not any humanitarian feelings. I am a writer, and my work is to write books.” (nytimes.com); "

— Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck

Field of Study: Author

Institution/Corporation: Pearl S. Buck International

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Howard University (1942); Member: Board of Trustees Vineland Training School, War Writers' Board,Phi Beta Kappa, Kappa Delta Sorority, Trustee Howard University, American Academy of Arts & Letters (1936)

Awards: 1932 Pulitzer Prize; 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature; 1973 National Women's Hall of Fame; 1983 honored with a 5-cent postage stamp by USPS; 1999 Women's History Month Honoree, National Women's History Project; 1935 William Dean Howells Medal; 1941 Order of Jade, Japan

Achievements: first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature 1938; was involved in the charity relief campaign for the victims of the 1931 China floods, writing a series of short stories describing the plight of refugees, which were broadcast on the radio in the United States and later published in her collected volume The First Wife and Other Stories; challenged the American public by raising consciousness on topics such as racism, sex discrimination and the plight of Asian war children; 1949 founded the first permanent foster home for US-born mixed-race children of Asian descent, naming it The Welcome Home; established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation (name changed to Pearl S. Buck International in 1999)[29] to "address poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries."; 1964 opened the Opportunity Center and Orphanage in South Korea, and later offices were opened in Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam; with 2nd husband founded the East and West Association in 1941 dedicated to cultural exchange and understanding between Asia and the West; with husband Richard formed the China Emergency Relief Committee in 1940, which helped send funds to the country for medical supplies, food, and clothing; 1942, she chaired the newly created Committee against Racial Discrimination, which was part of the American Civil Liberties Union & advocated for equal employment opportunities, the establishment of federal anti-lynching laws, and an end to segregation in the military;