Anne Rice

Anne Rice(bornHoward Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author ofgothic fiction,erotic literature, andBible fiction. She is best known for writingThe Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted thefirst volume in the seriesinto a commercially successful eponymous film,Interview with the Vampire(1994).
Born inNew Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life in the city before moving toTexas, and later toSan Francisco.She was raised in an observantCatholicfamily but became an agnostic as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication ofInterview with the Vampire(1976), while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, she published the novelsChrist the Lord: Out of EgyptandChrist the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced from organized Christianity, while remaining devoted to Jesus. She later considered herself asecular humanist.
Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of modern times.While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she gained a better reception with critics in the 1980s. Her writing style and the literary content of her works have been analyzed by literary commentators. She was married to poet and painterStan Ricefor 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60.She and Stan had two children, Michele, who died ofleukemiaat age five, andChristopher, who is also an author.
Rice also wrote books such asThe Feast of All Saints(adapted for television in 2001) andServant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books fromThe Vampire Chronicleshave been adapted as comics andmangaby various publishers. She authored erotic fiction under thepen namesAnne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, includingExit to Eden, which was later adapted into a1994 film.
Born inNew Orleanson October 4, 1941, Howard Allen Frances O'Brienwas the second of four daughters of parents ofIrishCatholicdescent, Howard O'Brien (1917–1991) and Katherine "Kay" Allen O'Brien (1908–1956).Her father, a naval veteran ofWorld War IIand lifelong resident of New Orleans, worked as a personnel executive for theU.S. Postal Serviceand authored one novel,The Impulsive Imp, which was published posthumously.Her older sister,Alice Borchardt, later became an author of fantasy andhistorical romancenovels.
Rice spent most of her youth in New Orleans, which forms the backdrop against which many of her works are set.She and her family lived in the rented home of her maternal grandmother, Alice Allen, known as "Mamma Allen", at 2301 St. Charles Avenue in theIrish Channel, which Rice said was widely considered a "Catholic Ghetto".Allen, who began working as a domestic shortly after separating from her alcoholic husband, was an important early influence in Rice's life, keeping the family and household together as Rice's mother sank deeper intoalcoholism. Allen died in 1949, but the O'Briens remained in her home until 1956, when they moved to 2524 St. Charles Avenue, a former rectory, convent, and school owned by the parish, to be closer to both the church and support for Katherine's addiction.As a young child, Rice studied at St. Alphonsus School, a Catholic institution previously attended by her father.
About her male given names, Rice said:
According to the authorized biographyPrism of the Night, byKatherine Ramsland, Rice's father was the source of his daughter's birth name: "Thinking back to the days when his own name had been associated with girls, and perhaps in an effort to give it away, Howard named the little girl Howard Allen Frances O'Brien."Rice became "Anne" on her first day of school, when a nun asked her what her name was. She told the nun "Anne", which she considered a pretty name. Her mother, who was with her, let it go without correcting her, knowing how self-conscious her daughter was of her real name. From that day on, everyone she knew addressed her as "Anne",and her name was legally changed in 1947.Rice was confirmed in the Catholic Church when she was twelve years old and took the full name Howard Allen Frances Alphonsus Liguori O'Brien,adding the names of a saint and of an aunt, who was a nun. She said: "I was honored to have my aunt's name, but it was my burden and joy as a child to have strange names".
When Rice was fifteen years old, her mother died as a result of alcoholism.Soon afterward, she and her sisters were placed by their father inSt. Joseph Academy. Rice described St. Joseph's as "something out ofJane Eyre... a dilapidated, awful, medieval type of place. I really hated it and wanted to leave. I felt betrayed by my father."
In November 1957, Rice's father married Dorothy Van Bever.On the subject of the couple's first meeting, Rice recalled, "My father wrote her a formal letter inviting her to lunch which I hand-delivered to her house ... I was so nervous. In the note he enclosed a pin which she was to wear if she accepted the invitation. The next day she had the pin on."In 1958, when Rice was sixteen, her father moved the family to northTexas, purchasing their first home inRichardson.Rice first met her future husband,Stan Rice, in a journalism class while they were both students atRichardson High School.
Graduating from Richardson High in 1959, Rice completed her first year atTexas Woman's UniversityinDentonand transferred toNorth Texas State Collegefor her second year.She dropped out when she ran out of money and was unable to find employment.Soon after, she moved to San Francisco and stayed with the family of a friend until she found work as an insurance claims processor. She persuaded her former roommate from Texas Woman's University, Ginny Mathis, to join her, and they found an apartment in theHaight-Ashburydistrict. Mathis acquired a job at the same insurance company as Rice. Soon after, they began taking night courses atUniversity of San Francisco, an all-maleJesuitschool that allowed women to take classes at night. For Easter vacation Anne returned home to Texas, rekindling her relationship with Stan Rice. After her return to San Francisco, Stan Rice came for a week-long visit during summer break. He returned to Texas, Rice moved back in with the Percys,and Mathis left San Francisco in August to enroll in a nursing program in Oklahoma. Some time later, Anne received a special delivery letter from Stan Rice asking her to marry him. They married on October 14, 1961, in Denton, Texas, soon after she turned twenty years old, and when he was just weeks from his nineteenth birthday.
The Rices moved back to San Francisco in 1962, experiencing the birth of thehippiemovement firsthand as they lived in the Haight-Ashbury district,Berkeley, and later theCastro District."I'm a totally conservative person", she later toldThe New York Times: "In the middle of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, I was typing away while everybody was dropping acid and smoking grass. I was known as my own square."Rice attendedSan Francisco State Universityand obtained aB.A.inpolitical sciencein 1964.Their daughter Michele, later nicknamed "Mouse", was born to the couple on September 21, 1966, and Rice later interrupted her graduate studies at SFSU to become a PhD candidate at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. She soon became disenchanted with the emphasis on literary criticism and the language requirements. In her words: "I wanted to be a writer, not a literature student."
Rice returned to San Francisco State in 1970 to finish her studies in creative writing and graduated with anM.A.in 1972. Stan Rice became an instructor at San Francisco State shortly after receiving his own M.A. in creative writing from the institution, and later chaired the creative writing department before retiring in 1988.Her daughter was diagnosed with acutegranulocytic leukemiain 1970, while Rice was still in the graduate program. Rice later described having aprophetic dream—months before Michele became ill—that her daughter was dying from "something wrong with her blood". Michele died in 1972, shortly before she would have turned six.
Rice's sonChristopherwas born in Berkeley, California, in 1978;he has become a best-selling author in his own right, publishing his first novel at the age of 22.Rice, an admitted alcoholic, and her husband, Stan Rice, quit drinking in mid-1979 so their son would not have the life that she had as a child.In 2008, Rice posted a YouTube video to celebrate 28 years of her sobriety.
Rice citedCharles Dickens,Virginia Woolf,John Milton,Ernest Hemingway,William Shakespeare,theBrontë sisters,Jean-Paul Sartre,Henry James,Arthur Conan Doyle,H. Rider Haggard,andStephen Kingas influences on her work. She repeatedly returned to King'sFirestarterfor inspiration: "I study the novelFirestarterwhenever I'm blocked. Reading the first few pages ofFirestarterhelps to get me going."
In 1973, while still grieving the loss of her daughter (1966–1972), Rice took a previously written short story andturned it intoher first novel, the bestsellingInterview with the Vampire. She based her vampires onGloria Holden's character inDracula's Daughter: "It established to me what vampires were—these elegant, tragic, sensitive people. I was really just going with that feeling when writingInterview With the Vampire. I didn't do a lot of research."After completing the novel and following many rejections from publishers, Rice developedobsessive–compulsive disorder(OCD). She became obsessed with germs, thinking that she contaminated everything she touched, engaged in frequent and obsessive hand washing and obsessively checked locks on windows and doors. Of this period, Rice says, "What you see when you're in that state is every single flaw in our hygiene and you can't control it and you go crazy."
In August 1974, after a year of therapy for her OCD, Rice attended theSquaw Valley Writer's ConferenceatOlympic Valley(formerly Squaw Valley), conducted by writerRay Nelson.While at the conference, Rice met her future literary agent, Phyllis Seidel. In October 1974, Seidel sold the publishing rights toInterview with the VampiretoAlfred A. Knopffor a $12,000 advance of the hardcover rights, at a time when most new authors were receiving $2,000 advances.Interview with the Vampirewas published in May 1976. In 1977, the Rices traveled to both Europe and Egypt for the first time.
Following the publication ofInterview with the Vampire, while living in California, Rice wrote two historical novels,The Feast of All SaintsandCry to Heaven, along withthree erotic novels(The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty,Beauty's Punishment, andBeauty's Release) under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure, and two more under the pseudonym Anne Rampling (Exit to EdenandBelinda). Rice then returned to the vampire genre withThe Vampire LestatandThe Queen of the Damned, her bestselling sequels toInterview with the Vampire.
Shortly after her June 1988 return to New Orleans, Rice pennedThe Witching Houras an expression of her joy at coming home. Rice also continued herVampire Chroniclesseries, which later grew to encompass ten novels, and followed up onThe Witching HourwithLasherandTaltos, completing theLives of the Mayfair Witchestrilogy. She also publishedViolin, a tale of a ghostly haunting, in 1997.Rice appeared on an episode ofThe Real World: New Orleansthat aired in 2000.
Rice began another series calledChrist the Lord: Out of Egypt, published in 2005, chronicling the life of Jesus.After moving toRancho Mirage, Californiain 2006,Rice wrote a second volumeChrist the Lord: The Road to Cana, published in March 2008, and was working on a thirdChrist the Lord: Kingdom of Heavenin November 2008. She also wrote the first two books in herSongs of the Seraphimseries,Angel TimeandOf Love and Evil, and her memoirCalled Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.
On March 9, 2014, Rice announced on her son Christopher's radio show,The Dinner Party with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn, that she had completed another book in theVampire Chronicles, titled,Prince Lestat,a "true sequel" toQueen of the Damned. The book was released on October 28, 2014.In 2015, a sequel to theSleeping Beautytrilogy,Beauty's Kingdom, was released.
Following its debut in 1976,Interview with the Vampirereceived mixed reviews from critics at this time, causing Rice to retreat temporarily from the supernatural genre.WhenThe Vampire Lestatdebuted in 1985, reaction—both from critics and from readers—was more positive, and the first hardcover edition of the book sold 75,000 copies.Upon its publication in 1988,The Queen of the Damnedwas given an initial hardcover printing of 405,000 copies.The novel was a main selection of theLiterary Guildof America for 1988,and reached the No. 1 spot onThe New York TimesBest Seller list, staying on the list for more than four months.
Rice's novels are well regarded by many members of theLGBT+community, some of whom have perceived her vampire characters asallegoricalsymbols of isolation and social alienation.Similarly, a reviewer writing forThe Boston Globe, observed that the vampires of her novels represent "the walking alienated, those of us who, by choice or not, dwell on the fringe".On the subject, Rice commented: "From the beginning, I've had gay fans, and gay readers who felt that my works involved a sustained gay allegory ... I didn't set out to do that, but that was what they perceived. So even when Christopher was a little baby, I had gay readers and gay friends and knew gay people, and lived in the Castro district of San Francisco, which was a gay neighborhood."
Rice's writings have also been identified as having had a major impact on later developments within the genre ofvampire fiction."Rice turns vampire conventions inside out", wrote Susan Ferraro ofThe New York Times. "Because Rice identifies with the vampire instead of the victim (reversing the usual focus), the horror for the reader springs from the realization of the monster within the self. Moreover, Rice's vampires are loquacious philosophers who spend much of eternity debating the nature of good and evil."
Rice's writing style has been heavily analyzed.Ferraro, in a statement typical of many reviewers, described her prose as "florid, both lurid and lyrical, and full of sensuous detail". Others have criticized her writing style as both verbose and overly philosophical.Author William Patrick Day comments that her writing is often "long, convoluted, and imprecise".The New York TimescriticMichiko Kakutaniwrote: "Anne Rice has what might best be described as a Gothic imagination crossed with a campy taste for the decadent and the bizarre."
In June 1988, following the success ofThe Vampire Lestatand withThe Queen of the Damnedabout to be published, the Rices purchased a second home in New Orleans, the Brevard–Rice House, built in 1857 for Albert Hamilton Brevard. Stan took a leave of absence from his teaching, and together they moved to New Orleans. Within months, they decided to make it their permanent home.
Rice returned to the Catholic Church in 1998 after decades ofatheism. She fell into a coma, later determined to be caused bydiabetic ketoacidosis(DKA), on December 14, 1998, and nearly died.She was later diagnosed withdiabetes mellitus type 1, and wasinsulin-dependent.Following the advice of her husband, Rice underwentgastric bypass surgeryshortly after his death and shed 103 pounds in 2003.
Rice nearly died again from an intestinal blockage orbowel obstruction, a common complication ofgastric bypass surgery, in 2004. In 2005,Newsweekreported: "She came close to death last year, when she had surgery for an intestinal blockage, and also back in 1998, when she went into a sudden diabetic coma; that same year she returned to the Roman Catholic Church, which she'd left at 18."Her return did not come with a full embrace of the Church's stances on social issues; Rice remained a vocal supporter of equality for gay men and lesbians (includingmarriage rights), as well as abortion rights andbirth control,writing extensively on such issues.
While promoting her bookChrist the Lord: Out of Egyptin October 2005, Rice announced inNewsweekthat she would now use her life and talent of writing to glorify her belief in God, but she did not renounce her earlier works, citing a connection in her earlier work with the state of her spiritual life.
In the Author's Note fromChrist the Lord: Out of Egypt, Rice states:
In her memoirCalled Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, Rice stated:
Rice announced that she had made plans to leave New Orleans on her website on January 18, 2004.She cited living alone since the death of her husband and her son moving to California as the reasons for her move. Rice put the largest of her three homes up for sale on January 30, 2004, and moved to a gated community inKenner, Louisiana."Simplifying my life, not owning so much, that's the chief goal", said Rice. "I'll no longer be a citizen of New Orleans in the true sense."She sold two New York City condominiums in March and April 2005.After completingChrist the Lord: Out of Egypt, Rice left New Orleans in 2005 shortly before the events ofHurricane Katrinain August. None of her former New Orleans properties were flooded, and Rice remained a vocal advocate for the city and related relief projects.
After leaving New Orleans, Rice first settled inLa Jolla, California, describing the weather there as "like heaven" in November 2005.She left La Jolla less than a year after moving there, stating in January 2006 that the weather was too cold.She purchased a six-bedroom home inRancho Mirage, Californiain late 2005 and moved there in 2006, allowing her to be closer to her son in Los Angeles.
Rice auctioned off her large collection of antique dollsat Thierault's in Chicago on July 18, 2010.Rice also auctioned off her wardrobe, jewelry, household possessions and collectibles featured in her many books oneBaystarting in mid-2010 through early 2011.She sold a large portion of her library collection toPowell's Books.
Rice publicly announced her disdain for the current state of Christianity on her Facebook page on July 28, 2010:
Shortly thereafter, she clarified her statement:
Following her announcement, Rice's critique of Christianity was commented upon by numerous journalists and pundits.In an interview with theLos Angeles Times, Rice elaborated on her view regarding being a member of a Christian church: "I feel much more morally comfortable walking away from organized religion. I respect that there are all kinds of denominations and all kinds of churches, but it's the entire controversy, the entire conversation that I need to walk away from right now."In response to the question, "How do you follow Christ without a church?" Rice replied: "I think the basic ritual is simply prayer. It's talking to God, putting things in the hands of God, trusting that you're living in God's world and praying for God's guidance. And being absolutely faithful to the core principles of Jesus' teachings."Rice participated in the "I Am Second" project in 2010 with a short documentary about her spiritual journey.Rice stated that she was asecular humanistin a Facebook post on April 14, 2013.She said that Christ was still central to her life, but not in the way he is presented by organized religion, in a July 28, 2014, Facebook post.
In a later interview with Alice Cooper, she stated:
Rice died from complications of astrokeat a hospital inRancho Mirage, California, on December 11, 2021, at the age of 80.According to a statement from Rice's sonChristopher Rice, the family planned to inter her at the family mausoleum atMetairie Cemeteryin New Orleans.
Rice was laid to rest in January 2022.The Rice Family Mausoleum is also the burial site of Rice's husband Stan Rice and daughter Michele. One side of the tomb is stained glass, the other three sides are engraved with Stan Rice's poems from his books "False Prophet" and "Some Lamb". The mausoleum is open to the public during visiting hours.
The Vampire Chroniclesseries:
New Tales of the Vampiresseries:
Lives of the Mayfair Witchesseries:
(*)Merrick,Blackwood FarmandBlood Canticleare crossovers with theLives of the Mayfair Witchesseries
In 1994,Neil Jordandirected amotion picture adaptation ofInterview with the Vampire, based on Rice's own screenplay. The movie starredTom CruiseasLestat,Brad Pittas the guilt-riddenLouis, and a youngKirsten Dunstin her breakout role as the deceitful child vampireClaudia.
A second film adaptation,Queen of the Damned,was released in February 2002, starringStuart Townsendas the vampire Lestat and singerAaliyahasAkasha.The movie combined plot points from both the novelThe Queen of the Damned, as well as fromThe Vampire Lestat. Produced on a budget of $35 million, the film recouped only $30 million at the U.S. box office. On her Facebook page, Rice distanced herself from the film, and stated that she feels the filmmakers "mutilated" her work in adapting the novel.
The 1994 filmExit to Eden,based loosely on the book Rice published as Anne Rampling, starsRosie O'DonnellandDan Aykroyd. The work was transformed from aBDSM-themed love story into a police comedy, and was widely considered a box-office failure, receiving near-universal negative reviews.
A film adaptation ofChrist the Lord: Out of Egyptwas reported to be in the early stages of development in February 2012. It was reported thatChris Columbushad signed on to produce, and thatCyrus Nowrastehhad already completed the script.On November 8, 2014, during an interview with her long-time editor, Victoria Wilson, at the Chicago Humanities Festival, Rice revealed that filming had finished on the movie and was going into post-production.The film, titledThe Young Messiah, was released in 2016.
In August 2014,Universal Pictureshad acquired the rights to Rice'sVampire Chronicles.In November 2016, whenUniversal Picturesdid not renew the contract, the film and television rights reverted to Rice, who began developingThe Vampire Chroniclesinto a television series with her son,Christopher.
In 1997, Rice wrote the story for a television pilot entitledRag and Bone, featuring elements of both horror andcrime fiction. ScreenwriterJames D. Parriottpenned the screenplay, and the pilot ultimately aired onCBS, starringDean CainandRobert Patrick.
The Feast of All Saintswas made into aShowtimeoriginal miniseries in 2001, directed byPeter Medakand starringJames Earl JonesandGloria Reuben.As of 2002,NBChad plans to adapt Rice'sLives of the Mayfair Witchestrilogy into a miniseries, but the project never entered production.
Earth Angelswas a presentation pilot written by Rice, produced byImagine Televisionand20th Century Fox Television, and picked up by NBC. Set in New York City, it followed angels in human form battling against evil.Four parts of Anne Rice's story treatment for the series were published in 1999 as a bonus in the comic book series calledAnne Rice's Tale of the Body Thief.
In November 2016, Rice announced on Facebook that the rights to her novels had reverted to her despite earlier plans for other adaptations. Rice said that she and her son, authorChristopher Rice, would be developing and executive producing a potential television series based on the novels.In April 2017, they teamed up withParamount TelevisionandAnonymous Contentto develop a series.As of early 2018,Bryan Fullerwas involved with the creation of a potential TV series based on the novels.On July 17, 2018, it was announced that the series was in development at streaming serviceHuluand that Fuller had departed the production.As of December 2019, Hulu's rights had expired and Rice was shopping a package including all film and TV rights to the series.In May 2020, it was announced thatAMChad acquired the rights toThe Vampire ChroniclesandLives of the Mayfair Witchesfor developing film and television projects.Anne andChristopher Ricewere to serve as executive producers on any projects developed.TheImmortal Universe, amedia franchiseandshared universebased on the works on Anne, began in 2022.
On April 25, 2006, the musicalLestat, based on Rice'sVampire Chroniclesbooks, opened at thePalace TheatreonBroadwayafter having its world premiere and preview run at theCurran Theatrein San Francisco, California, in December 2005. With music byElton Johnand lyrics byBernie Taupin, it was the inaugural production of the newly established Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures. Despite Rice's own overwhelming approval and praise,the show received disappointing attendance and largely negative reviews from critics.Lestatclosed a month later on May 28, 2006, after just 33 previews and 39 regular performances. The release of the cast recording of the show is reportedly on hold indefinitely.
Several of Anne Rice's novels have been adapted into comic books andmanga. Adaptations include:
Rice initially expressed an adamant stance againstfan fictionbased on her works, and particularly in opposition to such fiction based onThe Vampire Chronicles, releasing a statement in 2000 that disallowed all such efforts, citingcopyrightissues.She subsequently requested thatFanFiction.Netremove stories featuring her characters.In 2012,Metroreported that Rice developed a milder stance on the issue. "I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me", she said. "However, it's been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I'd want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there."