An American writer and novelist, also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu. As the daughter of missionaries, she spent most of her life before 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.

After her return to the United States in 1935, she continued her prolific writing career, and became a prominent advocate of the rights of women and minority groups, and wrote widely on Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed race adoption.