Finding Aid for the Pearl S. Buck Letter, 1943
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Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) was the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries, grew up in China, became a professor and writer, and won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth in 1931. This letter was written to history professor Vera Largent on behalf of the East and West Association.
MSS 178
1 folder
Collection is open for research.
Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Pearl S. Buck Letter (MSS 178), University Archives and Manuscripts, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Gift of Vera Largent, date unknown.
Pearl S. Buck was born Pearl Sydenstricker on June 26, 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia. She was raised in Chenchiang in eastern China by her Presbyterian missionary parents. After attending boarding school in Shanghai, Sydenstricker entered Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, graduated in 1914 and remained for a semester as an instructor in psychology.
In 1917 Sydenstricker married missionary John L. Buck; although later divorced and remarried, she retained the name Buck professionally. She returned to China and taught English literature in Chinese universities, where she took her master's degree in 1926. She began contributing articles on Chinese life to American magazines in 1922. Buck won a Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth (1931), a best-seller about a Chinese peasant and his slave-wife. In 1938, Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She died March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont.
This letter, written on the stationery of The East and West Association and dated March 22, 1943, is to Miss [Vera] Largent (professor of history at the Woman’s College from 1923 to 1961). The letter explains the work of the East and West Association and invites Miss Largent to join.
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