Buck, Pearl S[ydenstricker] . Typed Manuscript for a Speech. [New York ] Cooper Union 1944
Typed Manuscript (carbon copy) with occasional notations and changes by the author. 21 sheets, 8-1/2 X 11" typing paper, imprint of a paper clip to upper left margin and touch of restiness to first page); occasional smudging, very good. Pearl Buck addresses the question of what binds a country and its peoples, contrasting, in aprticular, the U.S. and China, the two countries most familiar to her. When she returned to the United State from China, she was struck by the diversity of race, cultural norms, food, etc. from one region to another. Yet the American political system had a strength and continuity singularly absent in China where religion custom and race were so much more homogeneous than in America. She sees the U.S., more than England or Russia or any other country, represent human freedokm and democracy; and as World Wr II is waged she thinks it vital that the ideal of human freedom not be neglected or ignored under the guise of the exigencies of war: "China can afford, perhaps, to fight a war merely to keep Japan off, England can, perhaps afford to think in terms of Hitler and Empire. The invasion is of another sort for us - it is not the simple invasion of our soil - it is the invasion of what we believe, as Americans, and when threatened, wherever it is threatened, we must make the war ours". Given American foreign policy during the latter half of the 20th century, Buck's speech is remarkable prescient. She sounded similar themes in her earlier "Heart of Democracy" speech (April, 1942) and "Make If Freedom's War" (December, 1942), but to our knowledge, this speech is unpublished.
$US750
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