Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia in 1892 as Pearl Sydenstricker, the daughter of missionaries in China. She grew up in China and learned to speak Chinese before she spoke English. She was nine years old before she realized she was an American.

The Sydenstrickers lived in mission houses much of the time. Pearl’s father traveled about the country preaching Christianity, and her mother gave helpful advice to Chinese women. Their most trusted servant was an old Chinese nurse, Wang Amah, who seldom let Pearl out of her sight.

Pearl’s mother ordered school books from America and taught Pearl at home. Later Pearl’s father employed a Chinese tutor to give her instruction in Chinese. She started to write stories about China as a mere child and had many stories published in a Shanghai newspaper, printed in English.

When she was eighteen years of age, she came to America to enroll in Randolph-Macon College at Lynchburg, Virginia. At first the other students chided her about her Chinese hair-do and clothing. Then she adopted American customs, made numerous friends, and graduated four years later.

Back in China, Pearl married an agricultural missionary from America, named John Lossing Buck. They had one child, Carol, who unfortunately was retarded. Despite this shock, Pearl soon wrote two novels, East Wind: West Wind and The Good Earth, published by the John Day Company.

Her The Good Earth became instantly popular, so she decided to move to America and place Carol in a special school in New Jersey. Her husband John had little interest in her writing and decided to stay in China. For this reason, she obtained a divorce and afterwards married Richard J. Walsh, president of the John Day Company.

In America Pearl led an extremely happy and successful life. She wrote almost continuously and had many books published. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature and numerous other awards. In addition, she and Richard adopted many children and became benefactors of unfortunate young people.

This book on Pearl S. Buck has been written by Elisabeth P. Myers, author of seven other books in the Childhood of Famous Americans Series. As usual, she conducted extensive research to sift out suitable facts, then proceeded to write a fascinating story about a very unusual person.

From the dust jacket