In 1938, this Pocahontas County native became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. She launched her literary career with the publication East Wind: West Wind in 1930. The following year brought worldwide acclaim with the appearance of The Good Earth, winner of the 1932 Pulitzer Prize. From then until her death, Buck wrote prolifically, publishing more than 100 works of fiction and non-fiction. Her major achievement as a writer was in introducing Asia and its people to readers in Europe and North America.

Buck became a well-known advocate for civil rights, women's rights, and the needs of people with disabilities. Her most lasting humanitarian legacies are Welcome House, the agency she founded in 1949 to oversee the adoption of mixed-race children, and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, established in 1964 to care for Amerasian children in their home countries. Her birthplace in Hillsboro is now the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Museum.