Video posted on YouTube by cleydapsbi

Pearl S. Buck International is a non-profit organization with three distinct functions that operate as one with the common mission of continuing the legacy and dreams of Pearl S. Buck. her committment to improving the quality of life and expanding opportunities for children and promoting an understanding of the values and attributes of other cultures, the injustice of prejudice, and the need for humanitarianism throughout the world.

Video posted on YouTube by TLVIDEO

Photograph of Pearl S. Buck (1932) from the Library of Congress

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings. Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels. Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck was amazing: author, poet, artist, musician, activist, renanissance woman.  Her books weren’t required reading when I was in school, but I discovered her in a used-book store one summer in junior high and was hooked.  Eventually, I read everything she wrote: novels, memoirs, cookbook, children’s book, and her one book of poetry, which was published posthumously.  I think she did enormous good in her lifetime, and she was and is one of the major influences in my life.  Her legacy remains strong and vibrant in the activities of the Buck Foundation, Pearl S. Buck International, and in the reading and rereading of her incredible novels.

In recent years Pearl Buck has been introduced to a new and even larger audience, influenced by Oprah Winfrey’s inclusion of The Good Earth in her book club.  That book is now on high school summer-reading lists, which is as it should be and would have been had folks not been threatened by some of her ideas.  

We still have a long way to grow; but, I think Mrs. Buck would be proud today to see how far we’ve come: accepted mixed marriages, much loved – not scorned – children of mixed ancestry, women more prominent in business, politics, science and the arts, and a black president who is going around the world with an open hand, not a closed fist.

Peter Conn’s Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography is an excellent introduction to her life, times, and influence.  Highly recommended along with all of Mrs. Buck’s books.