My Several Worlds: A Personal Record
667 pages
22 hours
Included in your membership!
at no additional cost
A memoir from the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Not only [Buck’s] most important book, but—on many counts—her best book” (Kirkus Reviews).
Often regarded as one of Pearl S. Buck’s most significant works, My Several Worlds is the memoir of a major novelist and one of the key American chroniclers of China. Buck, who was born to missionary parents in 1892, spent much of the first portion of her life in China, experiencing the Boxer Rebellion first hand and becoming involved with the society with an intimacy available to few outside observers. The book is not only an important reflection on that nation’s modern history, but also an account of her re-engagement with America and the intense activity that characterized her life there, from her prolific novel-writing to her loves and friendships to her work for abandoned children and other humanitarian causes. As alive with incident as it is illuminating in its philosophy, My Several Worlds is essential reading for travelers and readers alike. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Often regarded as one of Pearl S. Buck’s most significant works, My Several Worlds is the memoir of a major novelist and one of the key American chroniclers of China. Buck, who was born to missionary parents in 1892, spent much of the first portion of her life in China, experiencing the Boxer Rebellion first hand and becoming involved with the society with an intimacy available to few outside observers. The book is not only an important reflection on that nation’s modern history, but also an account of her re-engagement with America and the intense activity that characterized her life there, from her prolific novel-writing to her loves and friendships to her work for abandoned children and other humanitarian causes. As alive with incident as it is illuminating in its philosophy, My Several Worlds is essential reading for travelers and readers alike. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
My Several Worlds
by Pearl S. Buck
4.21 · Rating details · 329 ratings · 53 reviews
Autobiography of Pearl S Buck. A memoir of the life of the first female Nobel Laureate for Literature, who was also a world citizen and a major humanitarian, Pearl (Sydenstricker) Buck (1892-1973) three quarters of the way through her life. Published by the John Day Company to whose president, Richard John Walsh (1886-1960), she was then married, the book was successful and temporarily revived her waning reputation. The China oriented writer Helen Foster Snow described her partnership with John Day and Walsh as "the most successful writing and publishing partnership in the history of American letters." The firm had published everything she'd written since their marriage in 1935. Her biographer, Professor Peter Conn, describes the book as "a thickly textured representation of the Chinese and American societies in which she had lived." Friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, cultural ambassador between China and America, tireless advocate for racial democracy and women's rights and founder of the first international adoption agency, this is a book by and about a special American citizen of the twentieth century (less)
GET A COPY
KoboOnline Stores ▾Book Links ▾
Paperback, 472 pages
Published November 1st 1954 by Pocket Books (first published January 1st 1954)
Original TitleMy Several Worlds
ISBN0671800345 (ISBN13: 9780671800345)
------
Write a review
Carrie Kellenberger
Feb 19, 2009Carrie Kellenberger rated it it was amazing
Shelves: asian-literature, biographies, favorites
My grandmother Louise gave me a dog-eared and obviously much loved copy of My Several Worlds back in 2002 when she first learned about my plans for moving to China. That book is now one of my most prized possessions, not only because it's one my favorite all-time books, but also because my grandmother and I shared a common love of reading and it was one of the last things she passed on to me before her death.
Pearl S. Buck's autobiography of growing up with a missionary family in China during the early twentieth century, her first-hand observations of the end of China's final dynasty, and her detailed account on how the Communist party took over and why they were able to take control so easily makes for a facinating read. More than anything, though, it was her stories of struggling to move between both worlds-her world in China and her world in the US-that truly fascinated me. I remember reading this book as I was winging my way to China and hoping that I would some day be able to understand that kind of a life for myself. I am glad to say that I did, and I still am.
I was so moved by her story, in fact, that five years later, her story was still with me and when I started a blog to document my adventures and thoughts on living and working in China and in Taiwan, I named that blog after her autobiography My Several Worlds.
Buck is a true cultural ambassador and a citizen of the world, and I think everyone should read at least one of her books. (less)
flag13 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Kevin Kane
May 27, 2012Kevin Kane rated it really liked it
This book received the high honor of placement on my special shelf with other books I've designated in years gone by as my "Book of the Year."
My copy was discovered almost by accident on the dusty shelves in a church library a few years ago. It was there along with many other accounts of missionaries. This one caught my eye because it was autobiographical and written by a very formidable author. I'm not sure why I waited so long to finally get around to reading it.
Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I liberally marked many of the most insightful and skillfully written passages. Numerous bold and profound statements regarding orphan care found in it were shared by me with an organization I work with, Children in Families. I greatly admire Ms. Buck's work and advocacy for orphans. That was one of many things I learned about her from this book.
I found myself at times so caught up in her several worlds that it was as if I'd escaped for the time being from the multiple worlds of my own life. The passage about her visit to Angkor Wat brought her worlds and mine together in a way I cannot begin to describe.
In that there were so few spiritual references, it was far different from - as well as far better than - a typical missionary account. What it offered in historical and political perspective as well as cultural insight and literary criticism made up for what it lacked in spiritual content.
I'm sure I'll be taking it back down from my special shelf for rereading long before it ever gets dusty and neglected again.
(less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Ellen
Oct 17, 2010Ellen rated it it was amazing
Having just read Pearl of China for book club, I thought what better time than now to get the whole story straight from the source. I enjoyed the story behind Min's quasi-fictionalized telling of Buck's life from a Chinese perspective, however this, Buck's own autobiography, was what I was looking for. Pearl Buck led an interesting life and is a spectacular author, here she didn't disappoint as she gives some of her life's highlights and the lessons she's learned on all sides of the globe. I must say that it wasn't the fastest book I've ever read, however the things she said the the way she put them down was perfect, around every corner was another wonderful quote I felt needed to be shared. I went through a Buck phase several years back and then took a break, all signs point to picking up where I left off, there are so many more I have yet to experience. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Molly
Mar 28, 2012Molly rated it really liked it
Shelves: china
If you are interested in a more complete perspective on Pearl Buck's life, I suggest you read Pearl Buck in China: Journey to The Good Earthby Hillary Spurling. After reading Ms. Spurling's book, I realized how in this book, Ms. Buck purposely left out most of the more distressing and less attractive aspects of her life in China. Her missionary father's complete disregard for his family's well-being was shocking. She must have had incredible inner reserves as she had it pretty rough.....and then she goes on not only to be a very successful author, but wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. Amazing woman. But don't miss this read as her voice, especially when speaking of China, is so unique and wonderful, not duplicable by another author. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Colleen J
Oct 31, 2019Colleen J rated it liked it · review of another edition
Autobiography. Buck gives few details about her marriages but provides her opinion on many issues
This is a long book. It is not the usual autobiography. She wrote this book from various places and it seems to be more a stream of thoughts than a true autobiography.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Jane Mettee
Apr 16, 2020Jane Mettee rated it it was amazing
I’ve read many Pearl Buck novels over the years. She is one of my favorite story tellers. She lived in China the first 40 years of her life. She was taken there as an infant by her parents who were Presbyterian missionaries.
She knew the people she wrote about. She was awarded both the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes for her writing. This much I knew. I knew almost nothing about her personal life and beliefs. When I found this old dusty memoir in an antique store I was looking forward to reading it. I had no idea she was an activist who became quite controversial after leaving China in the 1930s due to battles between Chiang Kai Shek, Communists and Japanese all trying to control the country. In returning to the US she never felt completely comfortable. She was a stranger in the country of her birth. She was shocked at the racism and treatment of blacks. She became a spokesperson for civil rights, women’s rights, orphans and birth control. Women in the US had just recently been able to vote. She spoke strongly against the damage done by missionaries like her father who felt superior and preached damnation unless you accepted their beliefs. Another book of women’s history. Well worth reading. (less)
flag1 like · Like · 3 comments · see review
Christina
May 03, 2015Christina rated it it was amazing
10 stars to this woman, Pearl S Buck, whom I have grown this year to respect through her literature and now this, a sort of auto biography. If one could already feel the class this woman has and honor she deserves for her good heart and open mind, you will feel it a hundred fold through My Several Worlds. I could go on and on about this book as well as the others this literary journey has afforded me so far and the inspiration I feel from Pearl Buck. But alas, I will not. Great read, Again. And now I continue to discover her novels until I have had my fill of her. She has so much knowledge to offer because, having traveled and lived in many places around the world she says its not in the top "bucket list places" that she enjoyed seeing, although she did truly, it was in the people and always the people and what made their hearts. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Annique Mcgregor
Dec 05, 2019Annique Mcgregor rated it liked it
3.5 stars. Really nice to be reminded how talented a writer Pearl Buck was. Her use of language is so rich and beautiful. Her autobiography was very interesting, but the interspersing of world / Chinese politics of a time long past made it at times slow and bogged down. For this reason, it took me quite a while to finish it. I suppose it would be more interesting if I had a background in political science and / or Asian history.
I think the book, "My Several Worlds," is aptly named. I found the book most fascinating in relation to her experiences as a TCK (third culture kid), and with my own Asian expatriate experience, I found myself very much relating. Even from the perspective a century ago, the feelings of belonging but not really belonging in a foreign land and viewing and understanding the world from a global perspective rather than one's own microcosm still ring true. I found myself instantly relating--and yet, her lifestyle and experiences were much more primitive and immersive than mine!
What was disappointing in reading this book was her obsequious reference to her personal life--she sprinkles enough anecdotes about herself and her family but doesn't go into details so you find yourself craving more information which never comes. Thank goodness for Wikipedia which explained the diagnosis of PKU and developmental delay of her firstborn, her need for a hysterectomy (hence, no more natural children), the unhappiness of her first marriage, her second marriage to her editor, the subsequent children she adopted and her advocacy and running of an adoption agency to help place mixed-race children. I also think it interesting to see how devout and religious her parents were, yet she did not seem to espouse those beliefs, and based on references in the book, she seemed dismissive and almost disdainful of the Christian / missionary lifestyle. She is very definitive with her opinions, at times pronouncing them decisively as facts which I found somewhat jarring, but she was writing this as a seasoned, older adult reflecting back on her early life, so I suppose she is forgiven for being so stolid in her opinions.
I am interested in going back and reading some of her other works, especially as she makes reference in this autobiography of where ideas came from / who they were based on. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Priscilla King
Feb 13, 2019Priscilla King rated it really liked it · review of another edition
In 407 action-packed pages of "incomplete autobiography," Pearl Sydenstricker Buck supplied her credentials for writing "The Good Earth," the classic that inspired the whole genre of novels about Old China in English. "My Several Worlds" reads like one of those novels. Buck grew up in China, worked and had friends there, hid out during the war, escaped to Japan, and finally came back to the United States. More than the average missionary's child, perhaps because she was one of those bright children who are most interested in adults as friends, Buck was allowed to learn Chinese and hang out with Chinese women. She knew children who'd been sold as slaves (but treating them like adoptive children was a status symbol in rich families), rich people who'd never learned how to walk up and down stairs, women with and without bound feet (a fashion already on the way out).
Of her observations of old China, perhaps the one most relevant to modern China was how "the Manchu invasion of 1644 was successful in a military sense...the philosophical but intensely practical Chinese persuaded them to move into palaces and begin to enjoy themselves...Since the Manchus were encouraged to do no work, the actual and tedious details of government were soon performed by Chinese."
Fair disclosure: I wrote reviews of this and other books after receiving, scanning, and putting up for sale a Readers Digest Condensed Book collection; that's why they're all together on the computer. The RD edition was called "The China I Knew." I have the full-length book, with the jacket shown above, as well...I read "The China I Knew" in 2019, "My Several Worlds" in 2017. As usual with RD collections, if you have a choice, I recommend "My Several Worlds." RD abridgments are all right for the books that were merely popular in their season, but don't do the really good ones justice.
If you can't spare the time to read all of "My Several Worlds," you'll miss some good anecdotes but the biggest thing you'll miss is Buck's observations of life with a brain-damaged child, which inspired some of the most poignant scenes in "The Good Earth." Buck cut most of her memories of life after leaving China out of "The China I Knew." (less)
flagLike · 1 comment · see review
Brooks Lewis
Oct 31, 2020Brooks Lewis rated it it was amazing
I am not usually a memoir kinda reader, but I have been intrigued by Ms Buck since I read her take on the development of the atomic bomb at White Sands. I did read The Good Earth but not much else. This book fell off the shelf at my local bookstore and I thought "Why not?" This is the story of a writer who just could not help tell the stories of all the places and people in her life. I did not know as much of the 20th Century history of China and the tangled relationships with the colonialists of the West until I read through this. Ms Buck lived in China from around 1900 until she was forced to leave in 1938. Her view of the life of the "average Chinese" is a wonder to me: she was white, privileged, and yet not spoiled; she was taught by Chinese, nursed and fed by Chinese, rescued from death squads by Chinese and longed for a way to build a bridge of understanding between the ancient culture(2500+ years) and the ignorant interlopers(about 150 years).
This is a strongly political book and one that infuses all stories with her life. It gets a little preachy, focuses on the importance and sacredness of the family and vilifies the social worker system that denies many children the chance for love and caring. As a former childcare worker I can't fault her passion.
Read it to discover a strong woman who told stories that white people need to hear, even today. (less)
----
My several worlds Paperback – January 1, 1960
by Pearl S Buck (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 49 ratings
See all formats and editions
Kindle
from AUD 17.75
Follow
Pearl S Buck
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents were Southern Presbyterian missionaries, most often stationed in China, and from childhood, Pearl spoke both English and Chinese. She returned to China shortly after graduation from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1914, and the following year, she met a young agricultural economist named John Lossing Buck. They married in 1917, and immediately moved to Nanhsuchou in rural Anhwei province. In this impoverished community, Pearl Buck gathered the material that she would later use in The Good Earth and other stories of China.
Pearl began to publish stories and essays in the 1920s, in magazines such as The Nation, The Chinese Recorder, Asia, and The Atlantic Monthly. Her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, was published by the John Day Company in 1930. John Day's publisher, Richard Walsh, would eventually become Pearl's second husband, in 1935, after both received divorces.
In 1931, John Day published Pearl's second novel, The Good Earth. This became the bestselling book of both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Howells Medal in 1935, and would be adapted as a major MGM film in 1937. Other novels and books of nonfiction quickly followed. In 1938, less than a decade after her first book had appeared, Pearl won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl had published more than seventy books: novels, collections of stories, biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, children's literature, and translations from the Chinese. She is buried at Green Hills Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Read more
Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from the United States
Diane Secchiaroli
5.0 out of 5 stars Pearl Buck
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
This autobiography covers her childhood, adolescence, and young womanhood growing up in China as well as her eventual return to America. The stories she wields are entertaining and insightful. This book makes you want to read all her novels of which I have made a good start. She constantly conveys her insights into people she has observed weaving them as examples of her philosophy on various matters. She is a complex woman with much to expound upon. Her philosophy is surprisingly current. She was a truly amazing woman who traveled the world learning about people. Her characters are well defined and interesting.
5 people found this helpful
Flaret
3.0 out of 5 stars Want to Know More!
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
Pearl S. Buck tells about her life in China and in the US. The book is heavy on her assessments of the Chinese culture and character and China's move from a country dominated by warlords to Communism. Her descriptions of China were contrasted with her experience of the American upper middle class culture of her extended family. But don't expect to learn much about the author's personal life! Husbands appear and disappear (2), children appear and disappear. All is recounted with the reticence of a Victorian lady. However, the book shows the author as one who stood just outside of two cultures, and perhaps saw both more clinically than a person immersed in a single culture. I was fascinated and you may be as well. I now plan to read some biographies of Pearl S. Buck to learn more about this interesting person. and renowned author.
15 people found this helpful
Olivertea
5.0 out of 5 stars My journey to different worlds
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
Pear Buck's view of people she encountered in her life was keen, truthful with no partiality. Unfortunately she was treated unfairly by a country under changes of regime that she observed and knew profoundly more than its own people expelled her later in her life, perhaps because of pride or fear of facing the truth.
Most of all Pearl Buck's skillful writing made all characters in her stories come alive.
One person found this helpful
indooroopillykid
3.0 out of 5 stars Autobiography. Buck gives few details about her marriages but provides her opinion on many issues
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is a long book. It is not the usual autobiography. She wrote this book from various places and it seems to be more a stream of thoughts than a true autobiography.
2 people found this helpful
JACQUE JOHNSON
5.0 out of 5 stars A real Classic!
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
Wonderful Pearl S. Buck classic of her life. Everyone should read it it at least once. This book was the third printing done in 1955. The first owners name is signed on the inside cover and eventually became a library book—really gives it warmth!
One person found this helpful
Sharon Henderson
5.0 out of 5 stars My Several Worlds Revisited
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
Prior to living among the Chinese, when I was a young woman, I read all of the books authored by Pearl Buck. Revisiting this book, now that I am about the same age, as Mrs. Buck, when she reflectively penned her life story, renews life lessons taught therein. The wisdom of taking time to understand one another, regardless of culture and any other differences, is paramount to our own knowledge of human nature.
4 people found this helpful
Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars This autobiography is well written and takes the reader through ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
This autobiography is well written and takes the reader through the rich, varied, and successful life of a woman who asked questions and found insights into the human condition, finding her own way in turbulent and fascinating times, all the while gaining wisdom and understanding. Her story is about herself, but also about the people she met along her journey, people she turned into memorable characters, and the many places she lived, and visited, and described so well in her books.
4 people found this helpful
LF
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for any Pearl Buck fan
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
After reading most of her novels, I wasn't sure how she would take on her own interesting and eventful life. She told her story with the same honesty and humility that she conveys in her novels, and the opinions she injects into her own story are so well explained that they hardly seem like opinions. She mentions several short stories which I have never found on the Kindle list. Would love to see those become available.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
No comments:
Post a Comment