Pearl Buck in China (45 page)

155
“All Bolshevist propaganda
W. J. Drummond, letter to J. Addison Henry, Memorial Church, Overbrook, Philadelphia, February 15, 1927, PHS.

155
“There at the bridge
“The Revolutionist,” by PB,
Asia,
vol, 28, no. 9, September 1928 (reprinted as “Wang Lung” in
FW
).

155
“bandits in uniform
—This and the next quote are from JLB, letter to Mission Board, March 6, 1927, NSC.

156
“The people fear the
Northern army Mrs. J. E. Williams, letter to Mrs. Dim-mock, Mission Board, March 9, 1927.

156
“It was not conscious pretence
FA,
274.

156
“I… laughed
MSW,
210; the next quote is from
MSW,
211.

157
“It was a strange night
ED,
159. My account of the Nanjing incident is based on eyewitness testimony in JLB’s letters to his parents (February 12 and April 15, 1927) and to the Mission Board (March 6 and April 15, 1927), and PB’s Mission Board report (April 13, 1927), PHS; contemporary typescript reports by W. J. Drummond, “The Nanjing Incident of March 24, 1927”; C. Stanley Smith; and A. R. Kepler, “Nanjing—Four Months After,” PHS; 1970s interviews with JLB, the Thomson family, and others, NSC;
MSW,
210–17;
ED,
158–62.

158
“I cannot well describe
PB, letter to Mission Board, April 13, 1927, NSC.

158
“howling together
GE,
144.

158
“Worse than death
ED,
161.

158
“we had given ourselves up
PB, letter to EW, May 19, 1927, NSC.

159
“He… fell at once
MSW,
213.

159
“each thinking that now
ED,
162; and see
CWNG,
30.

159
“They were all young
MSW,
214.

160
“looted clean
C. Stanley Smith, letter to Mission Board, 1927, PHS.

161
“My roots
MSW,
217–18.

161
“It was a godsend
JLB interview, NSC. For the lost novel, see
MSW,
209; PB letter to EW, November 12, 1954, NSC.

161
“I fret sometimes
PB, letter to GY, January 1, 1941, NSC; ED, 219–20.

C
HAPTER 6

162
“Almost every night
JLB, letter to Bucks, April 15, 1927, NSC.

162
“But the longer time goes on
This and the next quote are from PB, letter to B. Reisner, April 16, 1927, NSC.

163
“When I saw her
MSW,
221.

163
“The little cottage
ED,
164.

163
“I can’t imagine why
THi, 136. For this trip, see
MSW,
223–24;
CWNG,
35, JLB interview, NSC.

164
“I have the habit of forgetting
My Mother’s House,
by PB, 1981, 11. The following amnesiac quotes are from
MSW,
36, 81, 91, 221, 200.

165
“That Shanghai Christmas
MSW,
231.

15
“embossed with a spare branch
This and the following quote from “Christmas Away from Home,” article, no provenance, NSC.

165
“We feel that helping the farmer
This and the next quote are from “The Building of a Rural Church,”
CR
58, July 1927, 408.

166
“The farming implements
“Indigenous Country Evangelism,” by AS,
CR
59, July 1928, 435–39. For PB’s identical opinion, see
MSW,
139.

166
“I do think she had a bad time
This and the next two quotes are from Lillieth Bates interview NSC. On JLB’s refusal to leave China, see PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1929, NSC.

166
“She entered very much
GY interview NSC. JLB interview, NSC, confirms this.

166
“I’m not going to fail
TPH,
125.

166
“I should like to tell you
PB, letter to Bucks [summer 1917], NSC. The next quote is from PB, letter to Bucks, September 20, [1925], NSC.

167
“His house explained so much
PB, letter to MCG, January 16, 1936, NSC.

167
“You’d have to understand
Clifford Buck NS interview, January 5, 1976, NSC.

167
“It was Mr. Holm’s hands
Other Gods,
by PB [1938], Toronto, 1940, 82, 200. For PB’s confirmation that this book was based on her own first marriage, see THi, 258.

168
“a tall, thick-necked, oafish
TN,
180. The next quote is from
TN,
186.

168
“I clung to it
CWNG,
30.

168
state institution
THi, 172; and see
TN,
330.

169
Interrogated by Pearl
—For Lu Sadze’s second marriage, see
MSW,
232–34, and interviews with Lillieth Bates, James Thomson, and Nancy Thomson Waller, NSC.

169
“I have never seen the creative power
ED,
165.

169
“They hugged them
Lillieth Bates interview, NSC.

170
“Doubtless they felt
CWNG,
26.

170
“Hours every day
ED,
154.

170
“It’s not a crime
CWNG,
21.

170
“You can hear them almost
Lillieth Bates interview, NSC.

171
“She was not really learning
CWNG,
36. The next quote is from
CWNG,
49.

171
“Missionaries in all Nationalist
PB, letter to EW, April 4, 1928, NSC; JLB, letter to Mission Board, February 21, 1928, NSC.

172
“He was a soldier
MSW,
247, 253.

172
“I feel as if I were living
MSW,
230.

172
“like street dogs”
This and the next three quotes are from
HD,
67, 68, 331.

173
“that brilliant mind
This and the next quote are from
MSW,
179.

173
visit to Nanjing
—Xu came from Peking to act as interpreter for Rabrindranath Tagore, who gave a single lecture in Nanjing on May 18 before leaving with Xu for the USSR. “Hsu Chi-Mo: Notes on a Biography,” by Chang Chun-Ku, type-script 1970, NSC.

173
husband in “A Chinese Woman Speaks,”
THi, 125.

173
“sickening romanticism”
MSW, 179. The next two quotes are from MSW, 178, 228–29.

174
Agnes Smedley
See
Agnes Smedley,
by J. R. MacKinnon and S. R. MacKinnon, London, 1988, 43, 366, n.17.

174
“She was just the wife
Christine Lewis interview, NSC.

174
“more like my old self
PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1928, NSC; Emma White interview, NSC.

175
evidence for this affair
—Nora Stirling claimed that the affair was confirmed by “Sara Burton” (pseudonym for Lilliath Bates), in PB’s correspondence with Emma Edmunds White and by an anonymous secretary in the United States (NS, 86), but there is nothing to support this in NSC, which contains emphatic refutations in writing by Prof. Liang Shi-chiu (January 12, 1978), who knew both Xu and PB, and by Xu’s friend and editor, Prof. Shau Wing Chan (April 14, 1979). All other interviewees denied the possibility, including Pearl’s sister, Grace (who changed her mind twenty years later, in her eighties; see PC, 103, 397, n. 63). There is no evidence to support allegations that Xu was either the nameless friend in the United States who urged PB to publish “A Chinese Woman Speaks” (NS, 67) or the anonymous Chinese in Nanjing who advised her not to cut
GE
(NS, 102–3).

175
“She was stout
Liang Shihchiu letter to NS, January 12, 1978, NSC.

175
“she imagined herself
THi, 125.

175
hero of
Letter from Peking
THi, 82, 102. See also p. 67 in this book.

175
“It is the privilege
THi, 83.

176
All previous bids
—For PB’s publishing history, see FW, xx–xxii;
MSW,
231; “Christmas Away from Home,” n.d., NSC.

176
even the gardenia bushes
MSW,
189.

177
“Locked in behind these high walls
EWWW, p 228–29. “Repatriated” is in FW.

177
no intention of moving
PB, letter to EW January 4, 1928, NSC.

177
he persuaded her
—My account of the Bucks’ return to Nanjing is based on PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1929; JLB, letter to Bucks, July 27, 1928, NSC;
MSW,
235–39; reports to the Mission Board by A. R. Kepler in July 1927 and W. J. Drummond, October 29, 1927, both in PHS.

178
Jack Williams’s grave
ED,
166; PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1929, NSC.

178
“Twenty families of refugees
FA,
260.

178
eighty-thousand farmers
The Stubborn Earth: American Agriculturalists on Chinese Soil, 1898–1937,
by Randall E. Stross, California, 1986, 175.

179
“The Communists in China
This and the next quote are from
MSW,
243, 244; see also “The New Road” in
FW
.

180
“these young men
HD,
299.

180
“They were arrested
This and the next quote are from
MSW,
248, 247.

181
U. S. Department of Agriculture For JLB’s professional career
, see JLB and Ardron B. Lewis interviews, NSC; note to p. 191 below.

181
“I realize I must
PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1929 NSC.

182
“the hardest thing
Margaret Bear interview, NSC. PB’s observations are in
CWNG,
37–40.

182
“These too were human beings
CWNG
40. The next three quotes are from
CWNG,
43, 45.

182
“If I had known
PC, 114, 399, n. 94.

183
“I continually marvel
PB, letter to EW, January 4, 1929, NSC. For the Vineland School and parting from Carol, see
CWNG,
42–48; THi, 141.

183
Grace Yaukey believed
ED, 167; PB, letter to GY, September 3, 1931, Helen Snow interview, NSC.

183
“it would not be fair
PB, letter to Mission Board, June 10, 1929, NSC.

184
“The house in Nanjing was empty
MSW,
250.

184
“The rains of late winter
HD,
330–32.

185
“That is, I think a Chinese intellectual
PB, letter to EW, October 15, 1945, NSC.

185
“its energy was the anger
MSW,
250.

185
“The Revolutionist,”
Published in
Asia,
vol. 28, no. 9, September 1928, and as “Wang Lung” in
FW
.

185
For “Lao Wang the Farmer,”
see
CR
57, April 1926, 237–44. For “Lao Wang’s Old Cow,” see
CR
63, February 1932, 102–7.

185
Shao Teh-hsing
(Shao Dexin) 1894–1991 I am deeply indebted to Ye Gongping for piecing together Shao’s career (he changed his name to Shao Chang-hsiang, or Zhongxiang).

186
“seemed to have been in her
EDts.

186
“sounds biblical but is pictorial
This and the next quote are from Christine Lewis interview, NSC.

186
“her speech presentation
KL, 42.

186
“One can hardly believe
“Pearl S. Buck’s Reception in China Considered,” by Liu Haiping in Lipscomb et al.,
The Several Worlds of Pearl S. Buck
, 60, 66, n. 20.

186
“It was all on the tips of my fingers
THii, 221.

187
“there was no one else.”
MSW,
255.

187
“many years planned
NS, 103; Lillieth Bates and GY interviews, NSC.

187
East Wind, West Wind
For its publishing history, see preface to
FW
and correspondence with Richard Walsh in NS, 103–5.

188
“admiration, even awe
James Thomson, in Lipscomb et al.,
The Several Worlds of Pearl S. Buck,
11; James Thomson interview, NSC.

189
“It’s difficult to distinguish
JLB, letter to Mission Board, December 3, 1930, NSC.

189
two Chinese scholars
I am grateful for this information to Prof. Liu Haiping, and Ye Gongping, whose source was Prof. David T. Roy of Chicago, a pupil of Zhao Yanan in 1949–50.

189
“She could hear them talk
John C. Ferguson,
Quarterly Missive of Chinese Bibliography,
vol. 1, National Library of Peiping, China, March 1934, 20.

189
“In the Communists
MSW
, 251. The next quote is from
MSW,
255.

190
“It’s the papers and grades
PB, letter to EW July 5, 1926; information from Prof. Liu Haiping.

190
“I miss eternally the person
CWNG,
55.

190
“there was that great, greedy
Mo,
125.

190
“It was very specific
GY interview NSC; see
MSW,
256.