PEARL S. BUCK - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/04/1941 - HFSID 257544

PEARL S. BUCK
Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck signed this letter on her personalized letterhead in 1941, asking the recipient to express the measure of your sympathy for a brave and democratic people" - probably the Chinese, who were fighting Japan. This letter was written 10 months before the United State's entry into World War II. Matted to 17x13½ in a brown matte.
Typed letter signed "Pearl S. Buck" in blue ink. 4½x6½ (visible) letter on Buck's personalized stationery, matted to 17x13½ in a brown matte with a 7½x9½ (visible) b/w photo of Buck. Feb. 4, 1941. In full: "Dear Mr. Whithead, I beg you to read carefully the enclosed invitation. It offers you the opportunity to express the measure of your sympathy for a brave and democratic people who without complaint and with unwavering determination have resisted aggression. We are asking ten thousand representative Americans to join with us in this legion of mercy. I hope from my heart that will be one of us." The "brave and democratic people" that Buck writes about are probably the Chinese, whom she wrote about and who had been fighting the Japanese Empire since 1937. This letter was written 10 months before Japan launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Buck (1892-1973, born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker in Hillsboro, West Virginia) born to Presbyterian missionaries, spent the first forty years of her life in China, the setting of many of her books. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1938). Best known for her novels about China (including The Good Earth; 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), Buck wrote over 70 novels as well as biographies, an autobiography (My Several Worlds, 1954), dramas, children's literature and translations from the Chinese. Matted by unknown individual. Items were not evaluated outside matte. "As is" purchase. Letter is lightly creased. Signature is lightly smeared but legible. Folded once and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.