The Good Earth The Good Earth The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes "Sons" (1932) and "A House Divided" (1935). It was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and was influential in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of missionaries, wrote the book while living in China and
Chinese American literature Importance of Living" (1937), became best-sellers. Chinese American authors became more prolific and accepted after the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Authors who achieved success in the 1950s included C.Y. Lee (author), whose "The Flower Drum Song" was made into a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and Jade Snow Wong, author of Fifth Chinese Daughter. The 1970s saw further progress. Playwright Frank Chin's play, "The Chickencoop Chinaman" (1971) became the first play by an Asian American to be produced as a major New York production. Maxine Hong Kingston won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976 for The Woman