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biographies

Lonely Boy

ASIN: B019QU5A86

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In spite of his lonely childhood, Yasunari Kawabata thrived and became a famous writer who won a Nobel Prize for literature. Learn about his life, his schooling, his books, and his love of poetry.

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This is a fictionalized biography but contains many facts derived from the autobiography he wrote as a teenager. I was fortunate to gain access to  Martin Bagish's thesis and translation: Kawabata Yasunari’s Diary of a Sixteen-Year-Old. A Thesis In Oriental Studies. University of Pennsylvania, 1969.

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Other sources include:

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A biography about Pearl S. Buck co-authored with scholar, Edwina Pendarvis, translated by Berlin Fang. Originally published in China as a bilingual Chinese/English reader for college students.

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Pearl Buck is a leader who teaches so much more than being the first, or part of the breaking news, or a flash in the pan. She is a person who became completely herself, authentic within her own life, eventually going beyond the boundaries of her day. She encompassed her upbringing, developed herself, made choices to fulfill her dreams, served other people as much as she was able through her work as a writer, a speaker, an activist, and a humanitarian while at the same time enjoying her life on her farm in Pennsylvania. It no doubt grieved her that she was forced out of China by the up and coming communist regime. Certainly she was hurt at not getting the chance to return when President Nixon made his visit in 1970s and broke the ice between the United States and China, and yet she did not become bitter, but rather she became philosophical, recognizing that Mao Tse-tung was a great leader, a sort of Emperor in spite of eschewing the old ways and traditions.

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Currently unavailable in the United States.

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