'Search yesterday to understand today'

 

“Ifyou want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”– Pearl Buck
 Buck, born on this date in 1892,saw the world unfolding around her and chronicled it in a writing style thatmelded the past and present with clarity and intensity.  Over her lifetime she penned nearly 40novels and numerous short stories and non-fiction works.   Born in the backwoods of West Virginia, she spent much of hergrowing up years in rural areas of China where her parents weremissionaries.  Throughout her adult life,she was a staunch supporter of multiple humanitarian causes, particularly insupport of overcoming poverty faced by children.   Afterwinning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938 (the first American woman to winthe award), she utilized her prize money to establish the East and WestAssociation, and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to address humanitarian issuesaround the globe.  Formore than 50 years she spoke out and wrote against injustice whenever andwherever she saw it.  “The truth is always important and exciting,”she said. “Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.”