Buck, Pearl Sydenstricker sī´dənstrĭk˝ər [key], 1892–1973, American author, b. Hillsboro, W.Va., grad. Randolph-Macon Womens College, 1914, the first American woman to receive (1938) the Nobel Prize in Literature. Until 1924 she lived principally in China, where she, her parents, and her first