See was born in Pasadena, California to Kate Louise Sullivan Daly and George Laws in 1934. See's father was a would-be novelist and sometimes journalist who told her to read the Horatio Hornblower books when she was eight so that she wouldn't later get stuck in the nautical details of Moby Dick. She spent her early years in Eagle Rock, California. Her father left when she was eleven and she was raised by her mother whom See described as a mean alcoholic. Carolyn had a younger sister Maureen who was 15 years younger who struggled with addiction and eventually died from the use of heroin. At the age of 16, Carolyn went to live with her father and his new wife in Los Angeles.
Career
See earned her associate degree from Los Angeles City College. 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 and gave birth to her first daughter, Lisa See. See won the Samuel GoldwynCreative Writing Contest in 1958 for her unpublished novel The Waiting Game and used the $250 prize money to pay for her divorce from Richard See. After her divorce, See married Tom Sturak and had her second daughter Clara Sturak. See later finished her doctorate at UCLA and her dissertation was on the Hollywood novel. In the late 1960s See began writing articles for the Los Angeles Times and celebrity profiles for TV Guide. 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 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 from 1970 until 1985. This was followed by a period as a visiting professor of English at her alma mater, UCLA, 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 having previously been a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and Newsday. See retired from the Washington Post in 2014 after 27 years. See has been on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle 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 celebrates the city's unique architecture. She lived in Pacific Palisades, California.
Writing life
See described her ideal day is to "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."
Personal life
See's first husband was Richard See. See's second husband was Tom Sturak. Both marriages ended in divorce. She was then with John Espey from 1974 until his death in 2000. See had two daughters: novelist Lisa See and Clara Sturak.
Philosophical and/or political views
See was a feminist, and said of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, "I was one of the persons whose lives that book changed." After the publication of Rhine Maidens, See announced that she wasn't interested in writing women's novel anymore. See was vocal that Blue Money was the only book of hers that men ever read.
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 and the Getty Center fellowship. She was also awarded the Robert Kirsch Award by the Los Angeles Times in 1993, an honor bestowed upon an author who writes about or lives in the West.
