The Good Earth

The Good Earth is one of the most famous novels of all time. It won for the author both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was the best selling fiction work in 1931 and 1932. The author has been honored with a 5¢ Great Americans series postage stamp issued by the United States Postal Service. So many millions of people have read it and have based their knowledge of pre-revolutionary China on it that it has influenced the course of future events. Unfortunately, this may have had the consequence of some people supporting the 1949 take-over of China by Chairman Mao based on what Pearl Buck wrote about poverty and life in rural China. Pearl S. Buck lived most of her life in China up until to the time she wrote this book. When Nixon went to China to visit Chairman Mao in 1972, Peal Buck wanted to go along too as translator. She was heartbroken when Mao's wife denounced Pearl Buck as an “American cultural imperialist". Mao whom Pearl Buck had initially supported would not allow her to visit. This book that Pearl Buck wrote had been banned in China and nobody had read or was allowed to read this book.