Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck, 1892–1973.  American novelist.  Typed Letter Signed, Pearl S. Buck, one page, quarto, [no place], July 1956.  Co-signed by Buck’s publishing agent, David Lloyd.

This is an unmailed mimeographed letter in which Buck addresses the royalties from her works.  She gives instructions with respect to the “statements and remittances relating to the literary material of Pearl S. Buck now being handled by you.”

Buck, an American who grew up in China, published stories and essays in magazines for a decade before her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, was finally published in 1930.  Literary agents who thought that the American public would not appreciate Buck’s interest in Chinese subjects declined to publish the book until Lloyd, who worked for the John Day Company, agreed to do so.  At that point, Buck’s career as a novelist began in earnest.  She soon completed The Good Earth, which Day published in 1931.  The book received rave reviews, became the best-selling book of 1931 and 1932, won Buck the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Novel, and became an Academy Award-winning film in 1937.  Two more books, Sons and A House Divided, published in 1932 and 1935, completed the trilogy.

Buck published some 70 books during her lifetime.  She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, which she received in 1938. 

This letter has never been folded.  It shows only minimal signs of handling and is in very fine to extra fine condition.

Unframed.