Buck graduation centennial continues with documentary viewing

This week, Randolph College will continue its celebration of the centennial anniversary of Pearl S. Buck’s graduation with a viewing of East Wind, West Wind, a documentary about her life.

East Wind, West Wind: Pearl Buck, the Woman Who Embraced the World will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday in Nichols Theatre. Frances Webb ’77, Lipscomb Library’s reference librarian, and Elizabeth Lipscomb, a former English professor from the College, will host the screening and will be available to take questions afterward.

The documentary, about 85 minutes long, tells the story of Buck’s life through interviews with Buck’s contemporaries and scholars of Asia. It includes fascinating footage of rural and urban China.

Buck, a member of the Class of 1914, was one of the best-known authors of the 20th century. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature as well as the Pulitzer Prize.

The College started a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Buck’s graduation in November, when Anchee Min, author of Pearl of China, spoke at the College. For more information about the celebration, see www.randolphcollege.edu/buck

Pearl S. Buck centennial graduation anniversary celebration begins with Anchee Min lecture

Speaking at Randolph College allowed Anchee Min to answer some long-held questions about Pearl S. Buck, one of her literary inspirations who graduated in the Class of 1914.

“I said yes to this invitation because I was very curious about this College,” said Min. “I wanted to know what kind of school had prepared and shaped Pearl Buck’s mind at the critical thinking level and also at the global level.”

Anchee Min signs books after her lecture at Randolph College.

Min, a novelist and memoirist, visited Randolph this week to begin a celebration of Buck’s centennial graduation anniversary. Tuesday afternoon, she attended a combined session of two writing classes and talked about the process of writing, her life in China, and her respect for Buck. She shared her story during a public lecture.

As a child, Min spent her summers not far from the region of China where Buck grew up. She first heard of Buck, though, when she was in middle school, and students were assigned to write essays denouncing Buck and her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth, which teachers and communist leaders claimed was insulting to Chinese peasants.

Decades later, Min was given a copy of The Good Earth while on a book tour in the United States. Reading the novel she had once denounced was an awakening experience. “I have never read any authors who portrayed our peasants with such love, affection, and compassion,” she said. She decided right then she would someday write a book about Buck.

Min told the audience at Randolph how she set out to learn more about Buck, visiting Buck’s home and interviewing many people who knew her. She wrote Pearl of China, a novel that portrays Buck as the friend of a young Chinese girl. Central to the book is her depiction of Buck as a loving and compassionate person. “Pearl Buck never lost her love and her faith in China,” Min said.

Newly published Pearl S. Buck novel now in Randolph College Campus Store

A long-lost novel written by Pearl S. Buck, class of 1914, is now available in the Randolph College Campus Store.

The Campus Store is selling copies of The Eternal Wonder, the recently discovered
novel by Pearl S. Buck, and Pearl of China, a novel that dramatizes parts of Buck's life.

Buck penned The Eternal Wonder shortly before she died 40 years ago. The manuscript was recently discovered in a storage unit in Texas and given to her family. Open Road Integrated Media published the book last week.

The novel tells the story of Randolph “Rann” Colfax, a gifted young man who searches for meaning, purpose, and love. “A moving and mesmerizing fictional exploration of the themes that meant so much to Pearl S. Buck in her life, this final work is perhaps her most personal and passionate, and will no doubt appeal to the millions of readers who have treasured her novels for generations,” says the publisher’s website.

Pearl of China, a novel by Anchee Min that includes Buck as a main character, is also for sale in the store. On November 12, Min will speak at Randolph College to begin a series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of Buck’s graduation from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Copies of The Eternal Wonder and Pearl of China will be available at the event.

Author Anchee Min to begin Pearl S. Buck graduation centennial celebration on Nov. 12

Anchee Min loves telling people about Pearl S. Buck. Although she was raised in China at a time that the country promoted disdain for the American-born author, she eventually discovered Buck’s loving, literary portrayals of China. This inspired Min to not only write Pearl of China, a novel about Buck, but to share the author’s vision whenever she can.

“Pearl S. Buck is my hero,” said Min. “Her views on China are still valid today. I can’t speak enough about her importance and contributions to the world.”

Min’s lecture at Randolph College on November 12 kicks off the College’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of Buck’s graduation from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1914.

Anchee Min will speak at Randolph College at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in Wimberly Recital Hall.

Buck spent the first half of her life in China, with the exception of brief visits to the United States and the four years she spent attending college at R-MWC. She spent the second half of her life building bridges between the east and the west through her literature and humanitarian work.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth, a novel depicting the lives of Chinese peasants, and she later won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Buck also started organizations that not only helped Americans understand Asian cultures, but also helped in the adoption and education of mixed-race children and children with disabilities.

Randolph College is celebrating the centennial anniversary of her graduation with several events to help the community learn about and ponder her legacy. View details about the celebration at www.randolphcollege.edu/buck

When Min was a teenager, Buck was trying to obtain a visa to visit her beloved China. However, she was a political and professional enemy of Jiang Qing, also known as “Madame Mao,” the wife of the China’s communist leader. Quing worked to prevent Buck from obtaining a visa with a national campaign that denounced Buck as a cultural imperialist whose books had portrayed Chinese people in a negative light.

In 1996, Min was signing books when someone approached her and said that Buck had taught her to love the Chinese people. She offered Min a copy of The Good Earth, which opened Min’s eyes to the truth about Buck. “I broke down crying on the airplane from Chicago to Los Angeles after I finished reading The Good Earth,” Min said. “I had never known any writer, East or West, who wrote about our peasants with such love and affection.”

Min’s novel, Pearl of China, tells the story of a young girl in China who becomes friends with Buck and remains in contact with her for years, even after Buck leaves China. The book is now available for sale in the Randolph College Campus store.

Newly discovered Pearl S. Buck novel to be published this fall

Shortly before Pulitzer Prize winner, Nobel laureate, and R-MWC alumna Pearl S. Buck ’1914 died 40 years ago, she finished writing a novel titled The Eternal Wonder. That book will be published for the first time this fall.

Pearl S. Buck ’1914

Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company, and InkWell Management, a literary agency, announced the publication this week. They will publish the novel in digital and paperback formats on October 22, 2013. The book was featured in an article in the New York Times.

The daughter of Presbyterian missionaries, Buck was born in West Virginia but spent many of her early years in China. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1914. She became a prolific writer, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth in 1932. She later won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938.

According to the New York Times story, two copies of the manuscript for The Eternal Wonder—one typed and one handwritten—were discovered in a Texas storage unit earlier this year.

The publisher describes the novel as “a personal and passionate fictional exploration of the themes that meant so much to Buck in her life. It tells the coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax, an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris, a mission patrolling the demilitarized zone in Korea that will change his life forever—and, ultimately, to love.”

In a joint statement, Jane Friedman of Open Road, Michael Carlisle of InkWell, and Edgar S. Walsh, Buck's son, said, “We are thrilled to discover and publish a novel by one of only two American women to ever win both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. The Eternal Wonder is as brilliant and inspiring as Pearl Buck’s most famous works, and we look forward to readers across the world getting to enjoy this long-lost masterpiece this fall along with Buck’s other wonderful books.”