Carolyn See (née Laws; January 13, 1934 – July 13, 2016) was a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of English at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and the author of ten books, including the memoir, ''Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America'', an advice book on writing, ''Making a Literary Life'', and the novels ''There Will Never Be Another You, Golden Days,'' and ''The Handyman.'' See was also a book critic for the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

for 27 years.

Early life and education

On January 13, 1934, Caroline Laws was born in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

to Kate Louise Sullivan Daly and George Laws. Her father was a would-be novelist and occasional journalist. She spent her early years in Eagle Rock, California. Her father abandoned them when she was eleven and she was raised by her mother whom she described as a mean alcoholic. Her mother eventually remarried and got pregnant, and 16-year-old Caroline was sent to live with her father and stepmother in Los Angeles. Her half-sister struggled with addiction and eventually died from heroin. She earned her associate degree from

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campus ...

. During her second year at City College, she married Richard See and moved with him to Newfoundland where he was mustered for the Korean War. When they returned to L.A., See earned her M.A. from

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

and gave birth to her first daughter,

Lisa See Lisa See (born 18th February 1955) is an American writer and novelist. Her books include ''On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family'' (1995), a detailed account of See's family history, and the novels '' Flower N ...

. See won the Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Contest in 1958 for her unpublished novel ''The Waiting Game'' and used the $250 prize money to pay for her divorce from Richard See. See later finished her doctorate at UCLA and her dissertation was on the Hollywood novel.

Career

In the late 1960s See began writing articles for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' and celebrity profiles for

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

. At this time See worked out her writing habit—one thousand words a day on white unlined paper in felt pens. While writing non-fiction articles and reviews, See was approached by

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

editor Harry Sions who encouraged her to write a novel which became ''The Rest is Done with Mirrors''. See's first teaching job was as a professor of English at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

from 1970 until 1985. This was followed by a period as a visiting professor of English at her alma mater,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, from 1986 to 1989, where she would later become an adjunct professor. See also earned money by testifying for the defense in pornography trials, leading to the successful book ''Blue Money: Pornography and the Pornographers''. Besides writing, See also contributed to the literary world through reviews, and sat on review boards for awards. See was a frequent book reviewer for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' having previously been a book reviewer for the ''

'' and ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

''. See retired from the Washington Post in 2014 after 27 years. She had been on the boards of the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization ( 501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

and PENWest International. See also wrote books with her daughter Lisa See and John Espey under the pen name Monica Highland. See was known for writing novels set in Los Angeles and co-edited books that revolved around the city, including a book of short stories, ''LA Shorts'', and the pictorial books ''Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea : A Pictorial History of Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga & Malibu'', and ''The California Pop-Up Book'', which celebrated the city's unique architecture.

Personal life

See was married to Richard See from 1954 to 1959. They had one daughter, novelist

(born 1955). Her second husband was Tom Sturak, with whom she had a daughter, Clara Sturak (born 1965). Both marriages ended in divorce. She was then in a relationship with

John Espey John Jenkins Espey (15 January 1913 – 26 September 2000) was a novelist, memoirist and literary scholar, born in Shanghai where his parents were Presbyterian missionaries. Espey returned to the United States to study at Occidental College in 1 ...

from 1974 until his death in 2000. She resided in Pacific Palisades,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. See described her ideal day as one in which she could "write two hours, work in the yard for two hours, and write ten pieces of mail, that's all I want to do. It never works out that--or not often." See was a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, and said of

Betty Friedan Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...

's ''

The Feminine Mystique ''The Feminine Mystique'' is a book by Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963, ''The Feminine Mystique'' became a bestseller, initially selling ...

'', "I was one of the persons whose lives that book changed." After the publication of ''Rhine Maidens'', See announced that she was no longer interested in writing women's novel. See was of the opinion that ''Blue Money'' was the only book of hers that men ever read.

Published works

Novels

* ''The Rest Is Done with Mirrors''. New York, Little Brown, 1970. * ''Mothers, Daughters''. New York, Coward McCann Geoghegan, 1977. * ''Rhine Maidens''. New York, Coward McCann Geoghegan, 1980; Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin, 1981. * '' Golden Days''. New York, McGraw Hill, 1986; London, Century, 1987. * ''Making History''. New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1991. * ''The Handyman''. New York, Random House, 1999. * ''There Will Never Be Another You''. New York, Random House, 2006.

Non-fiction

* ''Blue Money: Pornography and the Pornographers''. New York, Rawson, 1973. * ''Two Schools of Thought'', with John Espey. Santa Barbara, California, Daniel, 1991. * ''Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America.'' New York, Random House, 1995. * ''Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers'' New York, Random House, 2002.

Novels as Monica Highland (with Lisa See and John Espey)

* ''Lotus Land''. New York, McGraw Hill, 1983. * ''110 Shanghai Road''. New York, McGraw Hill, 1986. * ''Greetings from Southern California''. New York, McGraw Hill, 1988.

Awards

See won both the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

and the

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views over ...

fellowship. She was also awarded the

Robert Kirsch Award Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, biography, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, current interest, ...

by the

in 1993, an honor bestowed upon an author who writes about or lives in the West.

References

External links

* Clara Sturak
The Last Man of Letters
''UCLA Magazine'', Spring 2001.
Official Website

Conversation with Carolyn and Lisa See

Article archive -- ''The Los Angeles Times''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:See, Carolyn American columnists American feminist writers American film critics American women film critics American literary critics American women literary critics American memoirists American non-fiction writers American women novelists 1934 births 2016 deaths American women academics American women short story writers American women columnists American women memoirists American academics of English literature Pseudonymous women writers Sex-positive feminists University of California, Los Angeles faculty Los Angeles Times people Newsday people The Washington Post journalists American expatriate academics American expatriate writers in Canada California State University, Los Angeles alumni Loyola Marymount University faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni People from Pacific Palisades, California Journalists from California Writers from Los Angeles Writers from Pasadena, California 21st-century scholars 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers