The Several Worlds of Pearl S. Buck

ELIZABETH J. LIPSCOMB is Professor of English at Randolph-Macon Woman's College.FRANCES E. WEBB is Reference Librarian at Randolph-Macon Woman's College.PETER CONN is Professor of English and Chair of the Graduate Group in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pearl Buck made important contributions as a humanitarian and an advocate of racial equality and women's rights. She did much to change American attitudes toward persons with mental retardation and toward mixed-race children. She was a major force in shaping American views of Asia, particularly China, during the 1930s and 1940s. Until 1993, she was first American woman to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. The 13 essays in this book, the first such collection on Buck to be published in the United States, view her from historical, humanitarian, and literary perspectives.

IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction: Rediscovering Pearl S. Buck by Peter ConnKeynote Adress: Pearl S. Buck and the American Quest for China by James C. Thomson, Jr.Historical PerspectivesThe Good Earth, Revolution, and the American Raj in China by Charles W. HayfordPearl S. Buck in Search of America by David D. BuckPearl S. Buck and American Women's History by John d'EntremontPearl S. Buck's Reception in China Reconsidered by Liu HaipingHumanitarian PerspectivesEast/West Ties: Amerasian Children and the Work of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation by Grace C.K. SumWelcome House: A Forty-Year History by Peter ConnBuck's Writings on Handicapped Children by Deborah Clement RaesslerLiterary PerspectivesWho's Afraid of Pearl S. Buck? by Jane M. RabbPearl S. Buck and American Literary Culture by Peter ConnPearl S. Buck's The Good Earth: The Novel as Epic by Pradyumna S. ChauhanScripting The Good Earth: Versions of the Novel for the Screen by James L. Hoban, Jr.Selected BibliographyIndexIllustrationsNobel Prize PortraitSenior College PortraitCommemorative StampWhite House GalaWith Amerasian ChildrenAt Her DeskMGM's The Good Earth