In the more or less complete absence of external evidence relating to Pearl’s childhood, I have where possible followed the relatively factual accounts left by her father and sister: a terse but reliable memoir by Absalom Sydenstricker, Our Life and Work in China, written in the 1920s and eventually published in 1978 with editorial amendments and additions by his youngest daughter, Pearl’s sister Grace Yaukey; and The Exile’s Daughter, Grace’s own brief biography of her sister, heavily edited by Pearl and published in 1945 under the pseudonym Cornelia Spencer. The two volumes of Pearl’s official biography were produced in her lifetime and with her collaboration by the companion of her last decade, Theodore Harris, who strung together her published and unpublished reminiscences with a selection of her correspondence, linked by reverential commentaries of his own.
My chronology is based initially on these often contradictory family sources, supplemented, corroborated, or corrected by material from three major archives. The Buck Papers in the Lipscomb Library of Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) in Lynchburg, Virginia, proved a rich resource, principally because they include the research files amassed by Pearl’s first independent biographer, Nora Stirling, who conducted extraordinarily comprehensive and perceptive interviews with family, friends, assistants, and professional colleagues soon after Pearl’s death. The Nora Stirling Collection is unique, and for me especially precious, in its emphasis on firsthand accounts of Pearl in China. Stirling’s book, Pearl Buck: A Woman in Conflict (1983), is more problematic. Written in the sentimental style of popular fiction, containing copious dialogue with no sources specified and little sense of historical context, it gives the impression of being a great deal less reliable than it actually is. Because the wording of quotations in Stirling’s published text frequently differ from her interview typescripts, I have cited the original typed versions as being probably more authentic. My book owes much to the generous and scholarly support of Theodore Hostetler, the library director; Frances E. Webb, the reference librarian; Adrian Broughman, the archives assistant; and Elizabeth Johnston Lipscomb, who catalogued the Buck Papers.
The comprehensive mission records preserved by the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia made it possible to trace the career of Absalom Sydenstricker in considerable detail through private reports and letters as well as annual records printed for the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Shanghai. I am grateful to the Society for permission to quote from documents in its possession, and to Eileen Sklar and her colleagues for guiding me through the collection’s labyrinthine pathways. The archives of Pearl S. Buck International, meticulously preserved in her old home at Green Hills Farm in Pennsylvania, and primarily concerned with her American years (which are beyond the scope of this book), yielded much incidental illumination. My best thanks go to the president, Janet L. Mintzner, and the curator, Donna C. Rhodes. Last I thank Peter Conn, whose authoritative and impeccably researched Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (1996) laid a solid foundation for all subsequent Buck studies. My book could not have been written without constant recourse to Professor Conn’s groundbreaking work, and it has had the benefit of his encouragement and advice from start to finish.
I am grateful to Pearl Buck’s children, in particular to Janice and Edgar Walsh for so patiently answering my questions, and to Paul Buck for permission to quote from his father’s writings. My warmest thanks go to Sue Stephenson, my cultural interpreter and guide in West Virginia, for her insight and hospitality. Also to James E. Talbert, archivist of the Greenbrier Historical Society in Lewisburg; to Lloyd and Elizabeth Lipscomb for introducing me to the Pearl Buck House in Hillsboro, West Virginia; to the house manager, Anita Withrow, for a personal tour; and to Mrs. Betsy Edgar for firsthand recollections of the Stultings, who eventually sold their house to her family.
I owe more than I can say to Prof. Liu Haiping of Nanjing University for moral and practical support. I am grateful for help and instruction to his students Hu Jing, Li Qingshuan, and most particularly to Jiang Qinggang; also to Robert Riggle, Catherine Germond, and Rev. Zemin Chen of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. My next great debt is to Ye Gongping (Ernie Yeh) of Nanjing Agricultural University for invaluable and indefatigable research, for translating documents, and for sharing with me his extensive knowledge of John Lossing Buck. In Zhenjiang my thanks go to the director of the Pearl S. Buck Research Association, Madame Xu Xiaoxia, and to the Association’s vice directors: Mr. Li Jingfa, curator of the Pearl S. Buck Museum; Mr. Wang Yuguo, vice director of the Municipal Culture Bureau and director of the Municipal Historic Relics Protection Bureau; and Prof. Zhou Weijing, director of the Pearl S. Buck Research Center, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. I thank too the Association’s general secretary, Mr. Ji Dong. I am greatly indebted to Prof. Shao Tizhong and Prof. Chang Hong of the Pearl S. Buck Research Center, Suzhou College, Anhui, for kindness and hospitality, and to Mr. MU De-hua, vice chairman, Lushan Federation of Literature and Art Circles, Guling, for much information and a guided tour.
My best thanks go to my agent, Bruce Hunter, to my editor, Alice Mayhew, and to Roger Labrie, for encouragement, resourcefulness, and forbearance under provocation.
Finally I should like to thank all those who sheltered me during the writing of this book: Ellen Wagner in New York, Sue Stephenson in Lynchburg, Susie and Nick Reilly in Shanghai, Hilary Tulloch in Westminster, Ian and Lydia Wright in Islington, Ivor and Hilary Cox in Beulah, and, as so often before, Dame Drue Heinz, Dr. Martin Gaskell, and the staff at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.
Hilary Spurling, Holloway, November 2009
KEY TO SOURCES
All Pearl Buck’s books first published by John Day, New York, unless otherwise indicated. Where quotations come from later editions by other publishers, these are cited in square brackets.
AS
Absalom Sydenstricker
BP
A Bridge for Passing, 1962
CR
The Chinese Recorder, Shanghai
CS
Carie Sydenstricker
CWNG
The Child Who Never Grew, Vineland Training School, New Jersey, 1950
ED
The Exile’s Daughter: A Biography of Pearl S. Buck, by Cornelia Spencer (Grace Yaukey’s pseudonym), New York, 1944
EDts
passages deleted by PB from the typescript of The Exile’s Daughter in the possession of Randolph College Archives
EW
Emma Edmunds White, correspondence with PB in Randolph College Archives
EWWW
East Wind, West Wind, 1930 [Moyer Bell, New York, 1993]
Ex
The Exile, 1936
FA
Fighting Angel, 1936
FW
The First Wife and Other Stories, 1933 [Methuen, London, 1933]
GE
The Good Earth, 1931 [Pocket Books, 2005]
GY
Grace Yaukey (née Sydenstricker)
HD
A House Divided, 1935 [Moyer Bell, New York, 1994]
IW
Imperial Woman, 1956 [Moyer Bell, New York, 1951]
JLB
John Lossing Buck
KL
Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Bridge across the Pacific, by Kang Liao, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1997
MGC
Marian Gardner Craighill
MO
The Mother, 1934 [Moyer Bell, New York, 1993]
MSW
My Several Worlds, 1954
NS
Pearl Buck: A Woman in Conflict, by Nora Stirling, New York, 1983
NSC
Nora Stirling Collection (typescript interviews conducted by Stirling with Pearl’s friends and family, as well as miscellaneous documents), Lipscomb Library, Randolph College Archives
OLW
Our Life and Work in China, by Absalom Sydenstricker, West Virginia, 1978
PB
Pearl Buck (née Sydenstricker)
P
C
Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography, by Peter Conn, Cambridge, UK, 1996
PHS
Presbyterian Historical Society Archives, PCUSA, Philadelphia
PSBI
Archives of the Pearl S. Buck House, Pearl S. Buck International
RCA
Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) Archives
Sons
Sons, 1932 [Moyer Bell, New York, 1994]
SS
For Spacious Skies: Journey in Dialogue, by PB with Theodore F. Harris, 1966
THi and THii
Pearl S. Buck: A Biography, by Theodore F. Harris in consultation with Pearl Buck, volume 1, 1969 [London, 1970], Volume 2, 1971, Creativity, Inc. [London, 1972]
TN
The Time Is Noon, 1966 [Methuen, London, 1967]
TPH
This Proud Heart, 1938 [The Book Club, London, 1939]
VH
Voices in the House, 1953, in American Triptych: Three “John Sedges” Novels, 1958
NOTES
CHAPTER 1
1 “We looked out over the paddy fields Ex, 55–56.
1 “These three who came before My Mother’s House, by PB, West Virginia, 1965, 8.
2 “I spoke Chinese first THi, 44.
2 “If America was for dreaming about MSW, 5.
2 “‘Everything you say is lies THi 69.
2 “Why must we hide it? THi, 44.
2 “Here in the green shadows MSW, 25.
3 “That huge empire The Gentle Inoffensive Chinese, by Mark Twain, vol. 2, New York, 1872[1992], 318.
3 “Sometimes Pearl found bones MSW, 19; THi, 74–5.
4 “Old Chinese novels MSW, 57.
4 “wonderful daggers FW, xii; see THi, 33.
4 Wang Amah was wrinkled THi, 89; ED, 23.
5 “because you wash yourselves THi, 34–38; see also Ex, 135–38; GY in NSC.
6 “a place called Home ED, 15; EDts.
6 “I grew up misinformed MSW, 63.
7 “He had to himself an area FA, 129–30.
7 One of the thrilling stories Ex, 156–62.
8 first-rate novelist’s training Ex, 300.
8 her “two selves” Foreword to American Triptych: Three “John Sedges” Novels, by PB, 1945.
9 “people would once have said VH, 481.
9 “But I cannot This and the next quote are from “Address to National Education Association,” 1938, cited in ED, 193.
9 “In China she is admired “Pearl of the Orient,” by Mike Meyer, New York Times Book Review, March 5, 2006.
9 Henri Matisse said Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, vol, 2, by Hilary Spurling, New York, 2005, 342.
9 Jawaharlal Nehru read MSW, 8.
10 “We had a full cup OLW, 25.
10 “the heart-rending bereavements CR 31, April 1900, 196.
11 “The deaths of these two children OLW, 25.
11 “I shouldn’t have listened BP, 21.
11 “He went about Europe FA, 102.
11 “I never saw so hard a heart FA, 100.
11 “irrevocable as death Ex, 130.
11 “Had it taken the death Ex, 177.
11 “We are by no means overtaking “The Importance of the Direct Phase of Mission Work,” by AS, CR 41, June 1910, 389.
12 “Gospel herald “On the Present Situation,” by AS, CR 57, August 1926, 603.
12 “His children were merely accidents FA, 208.
12 “My father set off on a long trip OLW, 22.
13 prisoners in their own houses Earthen Vessels and Transcendent Power: American Presbyterian Missionaries in China, 1837–1952, by G. Thompson Brown, NY, 1997, 138. For PB’s memories of Tsingkiangpu, see Ex, 180–87; ED, 13–15.
14 “the other one’s, the white one’s room Ex, 182.
14 “The masses of feathery Passage conflated from descriptions of the same autumn landscape in Ex, 99; and FA, 63.
15 “My memory of his middle years “In Memoriam,” PB’s obituary of her father, typescript, 1931, NSC.
15 “a man very tall GE, 133.
16 “almost as devoid All quotes in this paragraph are from “Preaching to the Chinese by Similarities and Contrasts,” by AS, CR 20, July 1889, 330.
17 “The people were afraid of us OLW, 29. PB’s account of Hsuchien in Ex, 196–98; FA, 129–30.
17 “They were living like beasts The Townsman, by PB, 1945, in American Triptych: Three “John Sedges” Novels, 1958, 140.
17 “For neither of them was it a struggle FA, 139. For other versions of this confrontation, see Ex, 198–99; Ed, 17. For AS’s escape from and return to Hsuchien, see OLW, 30–34; Ex, 197; FA, 88–89.
19 “My father seemed oblivious GY in OLW, 29.
20 “No large cities “What I Learned in Shantung,” by AS, CR 18, July 1887.
20 “the great sprawling opulent city” GE, 116. The nameless fictional city in this book combines features taken from both Zhenjiang and Nanxuzhou.
21 “They did not even know him well enough FA, 151.
21 godowns that smelled of hemp THi, 56.
21 three small rooms. The rooms above a Chinese liquor store rented in Zhenjiang in 1896–97, and the Sydenstrickers’ dramatic departure from them, are clearly described in ED, 18–19, 22–25, 32; EDts; THi, 56. PB describes her parents living in what seem to be the same lodgings in 1886–87 in Ex, 142–47.
22 “It robbed her of the tiny margin Ex, 191.
22 “They snatched at us THi, 46.
23 “if he took a pair of chopsticks Sons, 1932, 111–12.
23 “the silk shops flying brilliant banners This and the following quote are from GE, 120, 116; sweets, lanterns, and kites from MSW, 28–29; THi, 85.
24 I learned to know its every mood THi, 62.
25 the Kuling Mountain Company—Kuling (now Guling) was founded by Edward Selby Little (1864–1939) whose original plan showing the Sydenstricker plot was in the exhibition Story of Old Villas at the Guling Museum in 2007. Kuling was the birthplace in 1911 of the English draughtsman and novelist Mervyn Peake, who re-created the mountain as Gormenghast in his Titus Groan trilogy.
25 a lifesaving station—MSW, 125. See also MSW 126–31; Ex, 227–31; OLW, 41–42; ED, 32.
25 Clyde contracted diphtheria—Accounts of Clyde’s death in Ex, 202–4; MSW, 131; BP, 67; ED, 35; EDts.
25 “I have two little brothers The text of this letter, dated April 5, 1899, is in THi, 86.
26 “But his body is precious BP, 67.
26 “I was so happy CWNG, 6.
26 “Bred in this sparkling Ex, 41.
27 “If it had not been for this other one…’ Ex, p. 120. All quotes in this paragraph are from Ex, 119–22 (the storm at sea turns into a hot still moonlit night in BP, 21). Maude Sydenstricker died in the arms of Dr. W. A. P. Martin (1827–1916), one of the negotiators of the treaties that opened up China to the West in the 1860s, afterward president of T’ungwen College in Beijing.
27 “remained for Carie to the end of her life Ex, 93.
28 “She had to plunge her hand Ex, 131; invasive snakes from The Townsman, 1945, in American Triptych: Three “John Sedges” Novels, 1958, 216.
28 “a small, decrepit brick cottage Ex, 209.
28 “Their segments were covered SS, 146.
29 “In the year 1900 OLW, 27.
30 “Then he looked at us all strangely FA, 160.
31 “even Father with his collar off EDts.
31 “The air that summer’s day MSW, 39; see also Ex, 221–22.
31 “I seemed without the body FA, 164.
31 “The white people in Shanghai ED, 49.
31 “I had never seen her afraid MSW, 42.
32 “In October Absalom convened—Minutes of the North Kiangsu Mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church, 1899 and 1900, American Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai, in PHS.
32 “down through the states FA, 105.
CHAPTER 2
33 “thousands of Christian
s suffered OLW, 37.
34 “Did I not see sights MSW, 19.
34 “immensely better OLW, 42.
34 “for those savage MSW, 59.
35 “I knew every tree Grace Stulting Smith interview, NSC; PB’s memories in Ex, 135–41, 70–72, 175; THi, 82; PB, My Mother’s House, passim. 35 Throughout her childhood—Stulting family history taken from The Stulting Family: Dutch Ancestors of Pearl Buck, by Grace Stulting Smith, Richmond, Virginia, 1974, a privately printed monograph that differs in almost all particulars from PB’s folkloric version in Ex, 11–25 (the Stultings bought land but never developed it: the original 1848 deed of purchase is on p. 8, and the eventual notice of sale is in the Greenbrier Independent, January 18 and May 24, 1883.) Further details from A Historic and Scenic Tour of Pocahontas County, by C. A. Curry, West Virginia, 2004, 38–39.
35 “He was a city man This and the following quotes from Grace Stulting Smith interview, NSC.
37 “a harvest of dark, white-clad heathen Passage conflated from PB’s fiction and nonfiction accounts in TN, 171, and Ex, 88.
37 “Must we have the revolution MSW, 45.
38 Yankees had horns—Ex, 54.
38 “That amah, she raised her—This and the next quote are from Grace Stulting Smith interview, NSC.
39 “Sir, I know Ex, 89.
39 He was the youngest but one—Sydenstricker family history based on FA, 12, 15–29; Ex, 173–74; OLW, 2; PB’s ts obituary, NSC. Further information from an article by AS’s brother, “The Sydenstricker Family,” by Rev. Christopher Sydenstricker, in A History of Greenbrier County, by J. R. Cole, privately published, 1917, 240–42; the Greenbrier County Census for 1830, 1840, and 1850; Pocahontas County Census, 1880; Greenbrier County, (West) Virginia: Marriages 1782–1900, by Larry A. Shuck, Athens, Georgia, n.d. [1991]; A Genealogy and History of the Kauffman/Coffman Families of North America, 1584–1937, by Charles F. Kauffman, privately published, 1940; “A Genealogy of the Isaac and Esther Coffman Family Descendants,” by Daniel Roy Coffman, 1971, both in Greenbrier Historical Society Archives, Lewisburg, West Virginia.
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