When pearl heard that she had won the Nobel Prize, she was astonished in two languages. Her first reaction was in Chinese: “wo pu hsiang hsin” (“I don't believe it”). And, she added in English: “That's ridiculous. It should have gone to Dreiser.” Both comments were widely reported in the hundreds of news accounts that appeared across the country and around the world.

Just a week later, the New York Times Magazine published a flattering profile by S. J. Woolf that offers a description of the new Nobel Prize winner at the time of the award. After describing Peari's brown hair, high cheek bones, and striking, light blue eyes, Woolf called particular attention to what might be called Pearl's presence: “Although she is not a large woman, there is something sturdy about her – a statuesque quality that one sees in the figures of Rodin and Epstein, a bigness without grossness, a massiveness in miniature.” This was a tactful way of remarking on Pearl's weight, which had gone up again. Woolf also found Pearl to be courteous but reserved: “although she is affable, there is a suggestion of remoteness about her. This may be the result of shyness, or of the solemnity of an older nation which has left an indelible impression upon her.”

It is more likely that Pearl was using reticence as a shield. Still hiding Carol's existence, and still slightly nervous about her status as a divorced woman, she was always vexed by her encounters with journalists.