Buck's novel The Good Earth(1931)was the first widely read book to describe Chinese culture with accuracy and sympathetic insight For her achievement she became,in 1938,the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. 4 4 Buck’s novel The Good Earth (1931) was the first widely read book to describe Chinese culture with accuracy and sympathetic insight. For her achievement she became, in 1938, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature