“The old deep sadness of life lay in the bottom of her heart and she knew it was there, but she would not allow herself to sink into it. Out of the dark and sullen bottom of a lake the lotus flowers bloomed upon its surface, and she would pluck the flowers.”

American writer and humanitarian

Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and humanitarian. Born in 1892 and active in the 20th century, she is best known for the novel The Good Earth and for becoming the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Good Earth was the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and earned Buck the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The Nobel committee cited her rich, epic portrayals of peasant life in China and her memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.