In 1909, at the age of seventeen, Pearl Sydenstricker came to the United States to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Here she continued to write stories and even co-authored a class play. In her senior year, her writing talent won two literary prizes. Her experience in the United States soon made her aware that her life and education in China were far different from that of girls in the United States. Once again, she had to accept the fact that she was different, and she made efforts to bridge her two worlds.
After receiving her degree in 1914, she remained at Randolph-Macon as a teaching assistant in the department of Philosophy and Psychology. This position was short-lived, however, for Pearl was soon called back to China when her mother became seriously ill at the end of 1914. While caring for her mother, Pearl studied written Chinese and took her mother's place as a counselor, listening to Chinese women's viewpoints and helping them solve their problems.
On May 13, 1917, Pearl married John Lossing Buck, an American agricultural expert. John, originally from upstate New York, was in China with the Presbyterian Mission Board, teaching American farming methods to the Chinese. The Bucks lived in the city of Nanhsüchou in the Anhwei province of North China. It is here that Pearl Buck became acquainted with the life of the Chinese peasant — his simple life and farming methods, his precarious fights against drought, famine, death, and his close ties with the earth. This knowledge and love of the Chinese peasant were to appear later in The Good Earth and other of her literary works.
In 1921, the Bucks moved south to Nanking, where John received a position at the University of Nanking as a professor of agricultural methods. Pearl also obtained a position as a teacher of English literature. In October of that year, Pearl's mother died, inspiring Pearl Buck to write a short biography of Mrs. Sydenstricker as a memorial to her family. This biography, Pearl's first book, was put away for many years, later revised, and was finally published as The Exile in 1936.
