Pearl S. Buck's genius as a writer lay in her ability to portray her characters in a universal manner; their joys, sorrows, problems, and disillusionments transcend cultural barriers to become understandable to all readers. Buck's earlier works, most of them portrayals of Chinese characters and subjects, appropriately made her the bridge between the Eastern and Western worlds, China and America. She wrote more than sixty novels, several nonfiction essays and children's books, and many short stories.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was born on 26 June 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia, while her parents, Absalom and Caroline Stulting Sydenstricker, were on furlough from their missionary work in China. Taken to the Orient during infancy, Buck grew up among Chinese families (her parents eschewed the formal religious compounds in which most missionaries lived) and spoke Chinese before she learned English. She was educated rigorously and proved a brilliant student. In addition to tutoring and private schooling, she was required by her mother to do written exercises.
