Pearl Buck in China

Praise for
Pearl Buck in China

“Penetrating…. Ms. Spurling writes well, and with real feeling…. The resulting portrait is a complicated one, but it has an absorbing glow…. It’s a good story, easily as curious as any Buck herself put to paper.”

—Dwight Garner,
The New York Times

“A vivid biography of the early years of the now mostly forgotten novelist who was once America’s most celebrated writer…. Ms. Spurling is an exquisite writer, and
Pearl Buck in China
is beautifully paced.”

—Melanie Kirkpatrick,
The Wall Street Journal

“Sparkling…. An extraordinary portrait, rich in detail, ambitious in scope, with a vast historical backdrop that informs but never overwhelms its remarkable subject…. Throughout her gripping account, Spurling’s touch is sure, light and nuanced.”

—Stacy Schiff,
The New York Times Book Review

“Pearl Buck is one of the greatest writers on China, and Hilary Spurling has brought her and the China of her time to life with amazing immediacy and perception.”

—Jung Chang, author of
Wild Swans

“This elegant, richly researched work is at once a portrait of a remarkable woman ahead of her time, an evocation of China between the wars, and a meditation on how the secrets and griefs of childhood can shape a writer. At a time of heightened interest in China, Spurling’s biography is a compelling tribute to the woman who first focused American attention on the country.”

—Leslie T. Chang,
The Washington Post Book World

“A magnetic new biography…. You can learn much from Spurling’s poised account, written with sweep, pace and insights into what Aldous Huxley called the ‘enigmatic lesson’ of history: ‘Nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.’”

—
Bloomberg News

“Hilary Spurling has given us a riveting, multidimensional portrait of a writer torn between her Chinese childhood and her American roots. Haunting, yet firmly rooted in Chinese history,
Pearl Buck in China
shows the real Pearl Buck behind the well-known iconic image.”

—Hannah Pakula, author of
The Last Empress

“As dramatic and enjoyable as any of Pearl Buck’s novels…. Evocative… well-paced… an excellent summer read.”

—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A compelling study of a woman who tried to make sense of the poverty, violence, and suffering she saw as a child in rural China by setting down everything that happened to her, stripping away both the lies of her family and society in her search for self-identity and truth. Spurling’s penetrating insight and virtuoso style create a fascinating portrait of an author’s coming of age.”

—Jennet Conant, author of
Tuxedo Park
and
The Irregulars

“Succeeds in making Buck herself a compelling figure, transforming her from dreary ‘lady author’ into woman warrior…. Rescues Buck and some of her best books from the ‘stink’ of literary condescension.”

—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Hilary Spurling’s devastating ability to uncover secrets… gives her biographies the breathless pace and menacing undercurrents of thrillers… a biographical masterpiece.”

—
Financial Times

“This book has been an eye-opener for me… a brilliant account… Hilary Spurling is a terrific storyteller.”

—
The Observer
(London)

“From its wonderful opening sentence to its poignant close, this is a superb biography. Spurling has brought her characters to robust life. Readers will learn what they need to know about China in that tumultuous time and place at the beginning of the twentieth century.”

—Peter Conn, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, and author of
Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography

“Boldly conceived and magnificently written, original, enlightening, and with a narrative as thrilling as an epic film,
Pearl Buck in China
is a triumphant landmark in the development of creative biography.”

—Elaine Showalter, author of
A Jury of Her Peers

“Spurling, Matisse’s splendid biographer, adeptly matches factual rigor with enthralling insights in this brilliantly contextualized and beautifully crafted portrait of a unique cultural interpreter.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“Emphasizing the imagination’s power to ‘make bearable things too ugly to confront directly,’ Spurling sensitively traces the biographical background of Buck’s writing.”

—
The New Yorker

“A thrilling biography of the Nobel prize–winning writer…. Spurling, who has never written a dull sentence, also has magic power as a writer.”

—
The Sunday Times
(London)

“Hilary Spurling’s riveting biography should bring Buck and her work back to the forefront of public consciousness as China once again looms large in our political and cultural lives. A marvelous book.”

—Erica Wagner, literary editor of
The Times
(London) and author of
Ariel’s Gift

“An elegant and sympathetic portrait of one of the most extraordinary Americans of the 20th century…. An illuminating and compelling biography.”

—
The Guardian
(UK)

“Fascinating… revealing.”

—
The Economist

“A terrific story, told with rare intelligence and refinement.”

—
Daily Mail
(UK)

“Spurling’s compelling examination of the imaginative sources of Buck’s fiction succeeds triumphantly.”

—
The Daily Telegraph
(London)

“A gripping biography…. Haunting stuff.”

—
Daily Express
(London)

“Absorbing…. Spurling shows how China and the Chinese shaped Buck as a person and as a writer.”

—
USA Today

“This compassionate biography, which focuses on the first half of Buck’s life, when she lived in China, should move readers to rediscover her work as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.”

—
Foreign Affairs

“Elegant, timely.”

—
The Independent
(UK)

“Adds valuable perspective…. Respectfully resets her life and work in its appropriate contexts.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“A nuanced biography of the writer’s 40-year residence in China…. Spurling rediscovers a trailblazing heroine whose life speaks to her legacy as deeply as her books do.”

—
More
magazine

“An immensely readable account of Buck’s life, which encompassed all the violent upheavals that turned Imperial China into a Communist state. Spurling marshals her material beautifully.”

—
Metro
(UK)

A
LSO BY
H
ILARY
S
PURLING

The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, vol. #1, 1869–1908

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, vol. #2, 1909–1954

The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell

La Grande Thérèse: The Greatest Scandal of the Century

Paul Scott: A Life

Ivy: The Life of I. Compton-Burnett, 1874–1969

PEARL BUCK

Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright © 2010 by Hilary Spurling

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Paperbacks Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition June 2011.

SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Text designed by Paul Dippolito

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Spurling, Hilary.

Pearl Buck in China : journey to the good earth / Hilary Spurling.—1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.

p. cm.

1. Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker), 1892–1973—Homes and haunts—China. 2. Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker), 1892–1973—Knowledge—China. 3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 4. Americans—China—Biography. 5. China—In literature. I. Title.
PS3503.U198Z845 2010

813'.52—dc22

[B]                                      2010007712

ISBN 978-1-4165-4042-7
ISBN 978-1-4165-4043-4 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4391-8044-0 (ebook)

Extracts from works by Grace Yaukey by permission of The Estate of Grace Yaukey.

Extracts from published works by Pearl S. Buck by permission of The Pearl S. Buck Family Trust and Estate of Pearl S. Walsh aka Pearl S. Buck in care of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.

Unpublished material by Pearl S. Buck is Copyright © 2010 by The Pearl S. Buck Family Trust.

Photo credits
Pearl S. Buck International: 1, 3, 4, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19; Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation: 2, 6; Courtesy of MU De-hua, Vice Chairman, Lushan Federation of Literature and Art Circles, Guling: 5; Pearl S. Buck Research Center, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology: 7; Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Archives: 9; Courtesy of J. Lossing Buck family: 10, 11; Courtesy of Jiang Qinggang and Ye Gongping: 12, 13, 17

To the memory of Diane Middlebrook
who saw the point of this book from the beginning

C
ONTENTS

Map

Foreword: Burying the Bones

Chapter 1:
Family of Ghosts

Chapter 2:
Mental Bifocals

Chapter 3:
The Spirit and the Flesh

Chapter 4:
Inside the Doll’s House

Chapter 5:
Thinking in Chinese

Chapter 6:
In the Mirror of Her Fiction

Chapter 7:
The Stink of Condescension

Postscript: Paper People

Sources and Acknowledgments

Key to Sources

Notes

Note on Transliteration

Index