Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia on this day in 1892. Her father was a missionary, and she spent much of her early life in China, becoming fluent in both chinese and english.

Buck returned to the United States for college and graduate school. She became a prolific writer, and was the first American woman to win the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize.

Buck adopted many children and founded Welcome House, an adoption agency specifically for multi-racial adoptions. She also started a foundation for children fathered by American military overseas. Buck moved to Danby in 1969, where she spent the rest of her life.

Photo courtesy the Library of Congress.