Description:

Pearl S. Buck
n.p., n.d.
Pearl Buck Hand-Annotated Speech On U.S. Relations With Asia
Manuscript
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973). Typed Manuscript, with her copious handwritten corrections and revisions, 7pp, 8.5" x 11", no place, no date, a draft of her speech on United States-Asia relations. Unsigned. Faint rust stains from paper clip impressions at top left of several pages. Creasing and some minor soiling. Overall, in near fine condition. Includes a carbon file copy of the corrected draft and a charming black and white photograph of Buck.

An American writer and novelist, Buck is best known for "The Good Earth", which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Buck was born in West Virginia, but at just four months old, her missionary parents took her to China, where she spent most of her life before 1934. After returning to the States, Buck wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.

Here, Buck analyzes the relationship between the United States and the people and countries of Asia. Her speech covers a wide range of topics, including the ambivalent attitude of the Asian nations toward the West: "They admire our scientific achievements but do not at all admire the military uses to which we put them. Nor do they admire wholeheartedly the way in which we conduct our society."

Buck discusses the influence of Confucius on Western history, and encourages the West "to keep the bridges open...communications have begun, even though with hostility and name-calling...and the dangers which must accompany such relationships. In this strange fashion we are even communicating with that new nation Soviet Russia." She also mentions Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson as influences in "the development of our own democracy."

Buck concludes with a warning for Americans to wake up, as we are "our own worst enemies...our children grow up without a world sense. They are fixed within a little American world...we need...to change our perspectives...I don't know how you wake a people up. I suppose we shall have to wait for necessity. Some day we will need other peoples as badly as today they need us...we may need allies in a war or we may need places to trade..." Buck says that "we are heedless with power" and we know nothing of the people of Japan, Korea, China or the Philippines, but that "our chief interest in any people is in their military value to us...this is the real problem in the world today...which faces the new nations."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Provenance: RR Auction Certificate.
  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: Manuscript

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