"What has Pearl S. Buck Done for You Lately?"

"What has Pearl S. Buck done for you lately?" That was the question posed "1 day ago" on Yahoo Answers. It's an odd question, considering she died over nearly 40 year's ago, but one assumes the person who posed it is asking about the impact of her legacy, not what she, personally, has done.

The best response, as chosen by visitors to the site, was highlights of her life taken from the Pearl S. Buck International (PSBI) website. To those who know little or nothing about her, it's informative, and reveals Pearl Buck to be a highly accomplished woman, but the question seems to be asking what is Pearl S. Buck's impact on the world today, and the response provided most definitely doesn't answer that. It begins,

New Ways to Support the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace

Between Two Worlds by Pearl S. Buck

The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace has partnered with Amazon.comso that a portion of the proceeds from your purchases at the world's most successful e-commerce site can benefit the birthplace, provided you begin your shopping from any of the links embedded on the sites of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation. We have also begun listing items available for sale in our Gift Shop on Amazon at www.amazon.com/shops/PearlSBuckBirthplace

People all over the world can already purchase from our Gift Shop via our web site, and the inventory will generally be much more complete. The advantage offered by Amazon is that it lists our products alongside all other results whenever anyone searches on relevant terms. So someone who is a fan of Pearl Buck and is searching for her her works would see the limited edition, new signed copies that you currently have to go to our website to see in their search results.

A Google Doodle Honoring the 120th Anniversary of Pearl Buck's Birth?

Today Google debuted another Doodle.  Some users of the world's most popular search engine logged on today and saw San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge instead of the usual Google logo.  In a post on their Google+ feed the company explained that the doodle celebrates it's 75th Anniversary.  Google frequently marks significant events and anniversaries with doodles, such as the birthday of some significant figure or the anniversary of an important event in human history.

The birthday of composer Igor Stravinsky and filmmaker Federico Fellini have been celebrated on anniversaries of their birth, as have the anniversaries of the flight of the first man in space.  They can be limited to specific regions, countries, and groups of countries or they can be run worldwide.

Sometimes the doodle are animated or interactive.  Click here and hit play and you can listen to my composition recorded on the synthesizer that took the place of the logo on May 23, the 78th birthday of Robert Moog, creator of the Moog Synthesizer.  Turn your volume down. It's bad! 

June 26th is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Pearl S. Buck.  Surely she is as worthy of a Google Doodle as most of the figures the company has already honored! 

Pearl S. Buck in Schools and Universities Today

Pearl grew up in this home in Zhenjiang China and then
was a teacher herself, at the university there. 
All rights reserved by meckleychina

Do you study the life of Pearl S. Buck at your school?  

In a recent New Yorker article "Why is Literary Fame So Unpredictable?," Tom Vanderbilt uses Pearl S. Buck as proof that literary prizes do little to ensure the enduring reputation of an author, and asserts that her work is hardly read anymore.  I don't know how Pearl Buck stacks up against her contemporaries in terms of how much she is read these days, but Vanderbilt seems to have forgotten that The Good Earth, the best-selling, highly acclaimed novel that was most responsible for getting Pearl Buck all those honors back in the 1930s, received a huge boost in sales when Oprah's Book Club featured it in 2004.  

Pearl Buck: The Mike Wallace Interview

Though she didn't pass away until 1973, well into the era of television, it's surprisingly difficult to find recordings of interviews with Pearl S. Buck.  This February 8, 1958 interview with Mike Wallace is one of the best known and most enlightening.  It focuses largely on Pearl's view of gender relations and the role of men and women.  She is outspoken and her views are intriguing.  The site includes the video and a transcript.

Almost as intriguing are the shots of Wallace smoking and hawking Parliament cigarettes, as well as the content of the ads themselves, all of which are left in the video.

Pearl S. Buck and Marlinton Middle School in Morocco

An interesting comment came through our Facebook page today from Rachid Aadnani who teaches Arabic at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. 

I read Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth, translated into Arabic as الأرض الطيبة when I was in high school in Morocco. Great to see a page devoted to her. It was one of the first texts I read that were set in Asia. Absolutely loved that novel. It actually made me want to read more and more. So, thank you Ms. Buck!!!

Included with the message was the cover of the Arabic translation you see to the right.  Literature can be a really important tool for self-discovery, and understanding, but equally importantly, it can help us understand people who different from us.  It shows us the characteristics and emotions we share, and helps us understand how differences may not necessarily be all the strange after all.  Pearl Buck was a master of that.  She did not hide the exotic nature of the cultures she wrote about, be it her ancestral, the one she was born into but has little experience of until she returned to the United States as an adult, or her adopted culture.  Rather she treated them as matter of fact, and cut straight to the essence of the story.  Maybe this is why Pearl Buck is such a major figure of world literature, as appreciated abroad as she is here.

Pearl S. Buck International Comes to the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace

On Sunday representatives of Pearl S. Buck International in Bucks County, Pennsylvania came to Pocahontas County to visit the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace and to see the performance of Welcome Home at at the Opera House in Marlinton.  Here are just a few pictures.  Watch this blog for more about the day.

From front to back, Interim Executive Director Sue Groves and Former Executive Director Timothy VanReenen greet guests from Pearl S. Buck International, including CEO Janet Mintzer, in the black coat.

The delegation from PSBI included dignitaries, staff and volunteers.

What Happens When Great Writers Get Together

Scene from Welcome Home

There’s something fascinating about famous writers spending time together.

Recently I’ve been reading Ernest Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast. I don’t know how accurate his reminisces are, but I’m enjoying them. I am enthralled to have a glimpse into Hemingway’s Paris in the 1920s, into a circle of writers and friends that included Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce.

This may seem silly, but my reaction is a little like the way I feel when I find a People Magazine in a doctor’s office. But where People gets me thinking about beauty and style, writers hanging out with writers gets me thinking about art and ideas and the way writers can change the world, and the ways they challenge and inspire each other.

This kind of intersection of great minds—and of big hearts—is at the center of a play that will be performed at the Opera House this Sunday afternoon. The play is Welcome Home, written by Courtney Smith, a playwright from Greenbrier County. It explores the friendship between Pearl S. Buck, Oscar Hammerstein II and James A. Michener.

The Little Levels Heritage Fair Adds A Scholarship Competition to the Pearl S. Buck Student Writers' Contest

In addition to it's annual Pearl S. Buck Student Writers' Competition, The Little Levels Heritage Fair has announced a competition for a $500 college scholarship to be awarded to a Pocahontas County High School Senior.  Complete texts of the announcements are below.

The Little Levels Heritage Fair Announces the Pearl S. Buck Student Writers Contest

The Little Levels Heritage Fair, through a generous contribution by Mr. Michael J. Porter invites students to enter the Pearl S. Buck Student Writers' Contest.

We are changing the format this year.  Allegheny Echoes will conduct the Pearl S. Buck Writer’s Workshop within their event June 24 through June 29, 2012.  One student from either a junior or senior high school class and one college student may enter and apply for a full scholarship to attend the Allegheny Echoes & Pearl S. Buck Writer’s Workshop.  Teachers and Professors may also apply.  Poet Kirk Judd will conduct the classes along with other featured writers.

You must write “SCHOLARSHIP APPLICANT” on the envelope when you mail your application.  The winner will be notified as soon as judging is completed.

Welcome Home to make Pocahontas County Debut

Downloadable JPG Announcement

On April 29th, 2012 The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, Inc., in conjunction with Playwright Courtney Smith, will present the play Welcome Home. The drama transports the audience to the time when the internationally renowned American writer and Nobel Laureate Pearl Buck; another of the United States' most prolific and popular writers James Michener; and legendary lyricist of Broadway and Hollywood Oscar Hammerstein created the Welcome House Adoption Program for mixed race children. Through the play we will see these three characters grapple with the tough choices of the day and the realization that all children should be treated equally without regard to race or country of origin.

After the play Janet Mintzer, CEO of Pearl S. Buck International will speak to the audience about the Welcome House Adoption Program and how it has benefited countless children and families through its long and successful history.

The top notch group of actors includes Stephanie Bachman, Larry Davis, Danny Boone, and Jim Norris. Each cast member brings years of experience to the stage, they all have performed in the Greenbrier Valley Theater as well as other theaters in the region.

Article by Intelligencer Librarian Rayna Polsky

Intelligencer writer Rayna Polsky recently shared a post on her visit to the Pearl Buck Birthplace. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and just happened upon the Birthplace while driving through. Bucks County is where Pearl lived out the later years of her life after returning from China. I posted a link to the article below. Also, to learn more about Pearl S. Buck International in Bucks County, PA, you can go here: http://www.psbi.org

THE ARTICLE:

"From the Archives: Serendipity Doo-Dah"
http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/news/intelligencer/from-the-archives-serendipity-doo-dah/