Description: Published in 1950, this candid, groundbreaking memoir from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Good Earth" chronicles Buck's relationship with her oldest daughter, who was born with a rare developmental disorder. A forerunner of its kind, Buck's memoir helped demolish the cruel taboos surrounding learning disabilities.
Brief description: Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) was a bestselling and Nobel Prize-winning author. Her classic novel The Good Earth (1931) was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and William Dean Howells Medal. Born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, Buck was the daughter of missionaries and spent much of the first half of her life in China, where many of her books are set. In 1934, civil unrest in China forced Buck back to the United States. Throughout her life she worked in support of civil and women's rights, and established Welcome House, the first international, interracial adoption agency. In addition to her highly acclaimed novels, Buck wrote two memoirs and biographies of both of her parents. For her body of work, Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938, the first American woman to have done so. She died in Vermont.
Review Quotes: "Groundbreaking." --Publishers Weekly
"Spiritually moving." --James A. Michener "Buck turned away from fiction for this heartfelt 1950 volume about her mentally retarded daughter . . . [It] laid the groundwork for the literature on the disabled that followed." --Library Journal