The Good Earth

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED

BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

A poignant tale about the life and labors of a Chinese farmer during the sweeping reign of the country¹s last emperor.

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

• A chronology of the author''s life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book''s historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader''s experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world''s finest books to their full potential.

SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Pearl S. Buck, June 26, 1892 - March 6, 1973 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was an American author, best know for her novels about China. Buck was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia, but as the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries she was taken to China in infancy. She received her early education in Shanghai, but returned to the United States to attend college, and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia in 1914. Buck became a university teacher there and married John Lossing Buck, an agricultural economist, in 1917. Buck and her husband both taught in China, and she published magazine articles about life there. Her first novel East Wind, West Wind was published in 1930. Buck achieved international success with The Good Earth, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. This story of a Chinese peasant family's struggle for survival was later made into a MGM film. Buck resigned from the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions after publishing an article that was critical of missionaries. She returned to the United States because of political unrest in China. Buck's novels during this period include Sons, A House Divided, and The Mother. She also wrote biographies of her father (Fighting Angel) and her mother (The Exile). She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. During her career, Buck published over 70 books: novels, nonfiction, story collections, children's books, and translations from the Chinese. She also wrote under the pseudonym John Sedges. In the United States, Buck was active in the civil rights and women's rights movements. In 1942 she founded the East and West Association to promote understanding between Asia and the West. In 1949, Buck established Welcome House, the first international interracial adoption agency. In 1964, she established the Pearl S. Buck foundation to sponsor support for Amerasian children who were not considered adoptable. Pearl Buck died in Danbury, Vermont, on March 6, 1973.