The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, and in conjunction with the 2015 Calvin W. Price Appalachian Enrichment Series, will present a Humanities Lecture by Dr. Rob Merritt of Bluefield College on the importance of Ms. Buck.
In announcing Hillsboro native Pearl S. Buck (PSB) as the 1938 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, the Royal Swedish Academy pointed to her “notable works which pave the way to a human sympathy passing over widely separated racial boundaries and for the studies of human ideals which are a great and living art of portraiture….” From her writing achievements to her humanitarian efforts, Buck has historical and cultural significance on a global level. As one of only two West Virginia Nobel laureates (Economics laureate John Nash of Bluefield being the other), Buck occupies a very special place in the history of our state and is a source of great pride for all West Virginians.
The lecture will briefly survey how Buck the writer has been differently viewed over the years and will consider her particular significance in 2015 in West Virginia and beyond: How did Pearl Buck’s reputation go from unknown, to Nobel Prize winner, to object of ridicule to “one of the most powerful women of the century (Peter Conn).”
The lecture is scheduled to take place June 25 from 3-4:30 p.m. at the McClintic Library in Marlinton. For more information about the workshops, visit the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace website at pearlsbuckbirthplace.com or on Facebook, email info@pearlsbuckbirthplace.com or call 304-599-2496. For more information about the 2015 Calvin W. Price Appalachian Enrichment Series, visit the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau website at pocahontascountywv.com.