Carolyn See, "an author, teacher and colorful woman of letters whose scrappy humor and survivor's wisdom spiced her novels about the disaster-prone fantasyland that was her California," died July 13, the Los Angeles Times reported. She was 82. See wrote more than a dozen books and was awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize's Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement in 1993. A leading literary figure of Southern California, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship; taught creative writing at UCLA; was a regular book critic at the L.A. Times and the Washington Post; served on the board of PEN Center USA West; and was the mother of bestselling novelist Lisa See.
While Carolyn See's fourth novel, Golden Days (1986), "brought her the greatest attention," the Times noted that her 1995 memoir, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America, "was among of her most popular books." In addition to her most recent novel, There Will Never Be Another You (2007), See's works include Rhine Maidens, The Handyman and Making a Literary Life.
"People referred to her as the Grande Dame of Southern California literature... and she took some pride in that," Lisa See said. "When she started, there were very few women writers on the West Coast."
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British author Sally Beauman, who "was that rare phenomenon--a writer whose prose sang and who could at the same time tell stories that captivated millions," died July 7, the Guardian reported. She was 71. Beauman's first novel, Destiny (1987), "topped the New York Times bestseller list, as well as the charts in the U.K., Canada, Australia and South Africa." Her other novels include Rebecca's Tale, The Landscape of Love, The Visitors, Dark Angel, Lovers and Liars, Danger Zones and Sextet. She also wrote two nonfiction books--The Royal Shakespeare Company's Centenary Production of Henry V and The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades.
In the Guardian, Lisa Appignanesi described Beauman as "a proud, loyal, fiercely private, beautiful and generous woman--at all ages. Her intelligence was incisive and broad. She could tell you everything, not only about the latest Man Booker list, but about gardening and furniture restoration or how to render a wall. In fact, she was often dressed in a paint-spattered shirt and jeans and could be found, between books, up a ladder touching up a ceiling--before donning more elegant attire to go to the theater."