The Resume

(June 26, 1892-March 6, 1973)
Born in Hillsboro, West Virginia
Birth name was Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker
Daughter of missionaries
Raised in China
Wrote the novels 'East Wind, West Wind' (1930), 'The Good Earth' (1931), 'Sons' (1932), 'A House Divided' (1935), 'China Sky' (1941), 'Dragon Seed' (1942), 'The Big Wave' (1948), 'Imperial Woman' (1956), 'Letter from Peking' (1957) and 'The Living Reed' (1963)
Wrote the non-fiction works 'Of Men and Women' (1941), 'The Child Who Never Grew' (1950), 'My Several Worlds' (1956), 'People of Japan' (1966), 'China As I See It' (1971) and 'Pearl S. Buck's Oriental Cookbook' (1972)
Won a Pulitzer Prize for 'The Good Earth'
Won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1938)

Why she might be annoying:

She complained that 'The Good Earth' overshadowed her other works.
She divorced her husband to marry her publisher.
After her second husband's death, she began dating a dance instructor 40 years her junior.
Her books were banned in China for decades.
Her application for a visa to join Richard Nixon's diplomatic mission to China was reportedly personally rejected by Premier Chou En-Lai.

Why she might not be annoying:

She began writing to earn the money to care for her mentally retarded daughter.
She adopted six children.
Because existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race children unadoptable, she founded Welcome House, the first interracial adoption agency (1949).
She campaigned against the Chinese Exclusion Act and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
She advocated racial equality and women's rights.
She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Breeders [Have 5 or More Kids] (Ranked: 7)
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 15]
• Female Writers Who Used Male Pen Names
• Gallup/CNN/USA Today's Most Admired Women [1964] (Ranked: 8)
• Gallup/CNN/USA Today's Most Admired Women [1965] (Ranked: 8)
• Gallup/CNN/USA Today's Most Admired Women [1966] (Ranked: 10)
• Gallup/CNN/USA Today's Most Admired Women [1968] (Ranked: 8)
• Good Housekeeping Magazine's Most Admired Women - 01 [1970] (Ranked: 2)
• Good Housekeeping Magazine's Most Admired Women - 03 [1972] (Ranked: 3)
• Good Housekeeping Magazine's Most Admired Women - 04 [1973] (Ranked: 5)
• Horatio Alger Association Members
• I Adopted a Child
• I Am Not Chinese But I Speak It
• I am on a U.S. Postage Stamp [A-C]
• I Died in 1973 (Ranked: 80)
• I Love Younger Men [Tad Poling]
• I was Home Schooled
• I Write Bildungsroman
• Last Names that Rhyme with Dirty Words
• Look at Me, I'm Holding a Baby
• My Name is U.S. Currency
• National Women's Hall of Fame (Ranked: 1973)
• Nobel Prize for Literature
• Oprah's Book Club Selections (Ranked: 2005)
• Person to Person - Guests [A-K]
• Profiles 24001-24250 (Ranked: 24167)
• Publisher Weekly's Best-Selling Novel of the Year (Ranked: 1931)
• Publisher Weekly's Best-Selling Novel of the Year (Ranked: 1932)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 18 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 14 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 14 Votes: 21.43% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 31 Votes: 45.16% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 37 Votes: 45.95% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 28 Votes: 35.71% Annoying