1. Carolyn See was a professor emerita of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, 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.
Carolyn See's father was a would-be novelist and occasional journalist.
Carolyn See spent her early years in Eagle Rock, California.
Carolyn See's father abandoned them when she was eleven and she was raised by her mother whom she described as a mean alcoholic.
Carolyn See's half-sister struggled with addiction and eventually died from heroin.
Carolyn See earned her associate degree from Los Angeles City College.
Carolyn See won the Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Contest in 1958 for her unpublished novel The Waiting Game and used the $250 prize money to pay for her divorce from Richard Carolyn See.
Carolyn See later finished her doctorate at UCLA and her dissertation was on the Hollywood novel.
Carolyn See's first teaching job was as a professor of English at Loyola Marymount University from 1970 until 1985.
Carolyn See earned money by testifying for the defense in pornography trials, leading to the successful book Blue Money: Pornography and the Pornographers.
Besides writing, Carolyn See contributed to the literary world through reviews, and sat on review boards for awards.
Carolyn See was a frequent book reviewer for The Washington Post having previously been a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and Newsday.
Carolyn See retired from the Washington Post in 2014 after 27 years.
Carolyn See had been on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle and PENWest International.
Carolyn See wrote books with her daughter Lisa Carolyn See and John Espey under the pen name Monica Highland.
Carolyn See was then in a relationship with John Espey from 1974 until his death in 2000.
Carolyn See was of the opinion that Blue Money was the only book of hers that men ever read.
Carolyn See was 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.