Pearl S. Buck books

Anthologies

Au bord de l’eau Reading Order

Children’s Reading Order

House Of Earth Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Picture Reading Order

Short Stories/Novellas

Short Story Collections

Standalone Novels

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) was born in West Virginia but grew up in China, where her parents worked as missionaries. That childhood formed the foundation of her literary career — her most important novels are set in China and draw on direct observation of rural and urban life there during a period of enormous political upheaval.

The Good Earth (1931) is the work she is remembered for. It follows Wang Lung, a Chinese farmer, from poverty through wealth through loss, and the prose is spare and steady in a way that reflects the land itself. The trilogy that grew from it — Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935) — traces the same family across generations. Buck’s other China novels, including Dragon Seed, Imperial Woman, and The Living Reed, show comparable depth across different periods and settings.

Buck was also a prolific essayist, memoirist, and advocate. Her non-fiction addresses race in America, the rights of women, and her own experience of raising a child with intellectual disabilities. The volume of her short story output is considerable, and her children’s books show the same careful attention to character that marks her fiction for adults.