Pearl S. Buck, Her Nobel Prize, and the Nazis

In 1938, Pearl S. Buck was decorated with the highest literature award possible: the Nobel Prize. In most cases an award like this leads to a high increase in the symbolic capital for the author and raises the value of their books, but not for Pearl S. Buck. Looking closer at the global reception of Pearl S. Buck’s books before and after the awarding reveals that giving the Nobel Prize to her was for several reasons one of the most discussed decisions by the Swedish Committee. In the following, I will look exemplarily at the constellation of USA, China, and Nazi-Germany to reconstruct how her books were received in different national contexts before and after 1938 to investigate the global and national effects of her awarding.