First American woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

On November 10, 1938, Pearl S. Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first American woman to receive the honor.[1][8]

The Swedish Academy cited her "rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and her biographical masterpieces about her missionary parents, recognizing not only the huge popular success of The Good Earth but also the depth of her broader body of work.[12][1]

At the time, literary culture and major international prizes were dominated by men and by European voices. For a woman writer from the United States—whose primary subject was Chinese rural life—to be selected signaled a major shift in both gender and geographic representation in world literature.[8][3]

This award consolidated Buck’s status as an international public intellectual. It amplified her platform to speak on U.S.–China relations, racism, immigration policy, and the rights of children, themes she pursued vigorously in essays and activism over the following decades.[11][8]

Her Nobel win also helped legitimize writing about non-Western societies for Western mass audiences, influencing subsequent generations of authors who explored cross-cultural narratives. The 1938 ceremony thus stands not only as a personal triumph, but as a watershed moment in the recognition of women writers and in the global visibility of Chinese peasant life in Western discourse.[1][4]