Pearl: auto-biography

Discover the amazing true story of a woman ahead of her time in RD Stook's new biography, Pearl.

Pearl S. Buck, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth, didn't simply write about history-she lived it.

Born to Christian missionary parents in 1892, she grew up in China during one of that country's most tumultuous periods. Having slammed its door shut to Western trading for hundreds of years, China eventually came to resent-and abolish-all Western influences.

Refusing to succumb to the status quo, Buck found herself in trouble when, at age sixteen, she was caught teaching Confucius principles to those at her Chinese Christian missionary school. Soon after, she was sent to the United States for college, where she never forgot those she left behind.

Torn between two cultures, Buck spent her life crusading for those issues closest to her heart: women's rights, racial integration, and care for the lost children of mixed parents, whom she termed "Amerasian."

But as her star continued to rise, Buck's personal life began to crack. And in this eye-opening new biography, readers will finally learn the astonishing back story behind one of literature's most respected authors.