Buck, Pearl S.

Pearl S. Buck is the pseudonym of Pearl Sydenstricker Walsh. She was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents were missionaries, and Pearl Buck grew up in China, learning to speak Chinese before she spoke English. She attended school in Shanghai and went on to attend Randolph-Macon College at Lynchburg, Virginia, graduating in 1914. She returned to China where she taught English at the University of Nanking for many years. She spent a few years in the United States during the 1920s, mainly in order to get medical attention for her mentally handicapped daughter. She later wrote about her experiences in The Child Who Never Grew (1950). Buck was awarded a Master of Arts degree at Cornell University in 1926.