Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, while her parents 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. She was sent to Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia; after graduation in 1914 she returned to China and in 1917 married John Lossing Buck, an American agricultural specialist.

Her first book East Wind: West Wind (1930), which consisted of two short stories, was an immediate popular success. From her own background and from association with her husband's work she became thoroughly acquainted with Chinese peasant life and used this material in her...