MGM turned the novel into a movie in 1935. Pearl Buck in 1932, a year after ' The Good Earth' was published. Rocketing her into the realms of literary celebrity, the book was a significant factor in her being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, making her the first American woman to receive the honor. It was followed up with two sequels to form The House of Earth trilogy. Tracking farmer Wang Lung’s life from his wedding day until his death, the novel’s simply painted but moving portrait of the plight of the Chinese peasant stoked Western sympathy for a country many had dehumanized (and did so ahead of war with Japan). It was while living in Nanjing with her first husband, John Lossing Buck – an agricultural economist specializing in the rural economy of China – that she wrote The Good Earth, drawn from her experiences in rural Anhui and first-hand observation of Chinese village life.

After spending a few years back in the States attending college, in 1914 she returned to the country that had nurtured her, remaining there almost continuously for the next 20 years. The book immediately became an international bestseller, winning the Pulitzer Prize the following year, and was widely hailed in the West as the most important book about China since The Travels of Marco Polo.īorn in America in 1892, Buck had left her native land at just three months old, traveling with her missionary parents to China, where she spent her childhood learning the language and culture. Buck’s novel The Good Earth was published.

Pearl buck the good earth