Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born
October 4,
1941) is a best-selling
American author of horror/fantasy books. She was born
Howard Allen O'Brien. Best known for her
Vampire Chronicles, Rice has had a major influence on the "
Goth" movement; she has also published a number of works with
sado-masochistic themes. She was married to poet
Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002.
Early years
Rice was born and spent most of her early life in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, which forms the background against which most of her stories take place. She was the second daughter in a Catholic Irish-American family; Rice's sister,
Alice Borchardt, also became a noted genre author.
About her unusual given name, Rice said: "My birth name is Howard Allen because apparently my mother thought it was a good idea to name me Howard. My father's name was Howard, she wanted to name me after Howard, and she thought it was a very interesting thing to do. She was a bit of a
Bohemian, a bit of mad woman, a bit of a genius, and a great deal of a great teacher. And she had the idea that naming a woman Howard was going to give that woman an unusual advantage in the world."
Rice became "Anne" on her first day of school, when a nun asked her what her name was. She blurted out "Anne" immediately, and her mother, who was with her, let it go without correcting her, knowing how self-conscious her daughter was of her real name.
Writing career
Her father moved the family to north
Texas, taking up residence in
Richardson, in 1958, when Rice was 16, and she met Stan Rice, whom she would later marry, at
Richardson High School. She began college at
Texas Women's University in
Denton, but relocated with Stan to
California, where the couple put down roots in
San Francisco. "I'm a totally conservative person," she later told the
New York Times (November 7, 1988). "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." She would not return to New Orleans until 1989.[
1]
Rice and her husband had a daughter Michele, who was born on September 21, 1966 and died of
leukemia on August 5, 1972. Rice has said that
Claudia, the young girl in her vampire fiction, was inspired by her late daughter. Their son
Christopher Rice, now a novelist, was born March 11, 1978.
She completed her first book,
Interview with the Vampire, in
1973 and published it in
1976. This book would be the first in Rice's popular
Vampire Chronicles series, which includes 1985's
The Vampire Lestat and 1988's
The Queen of the Damned. Rice has also published adult-oriented fiction under the
pen name Anne Rampling, and has written explicit sado-masochistic erotica as
A.N. Roquelaure.
Her fiction is often described as lush and descriptive, and her characters' sexuality is fluid, often displaying homoerotic feelings towards each other. She also weaves philosophical and historic themes into the dense pattern of her books. To her admirers, Rice's books are among the best in modern
popular fiction, possessing those elements that create a lasting presence in the literary canon. To her critics, her novels are baroque, "low-brow pulp" and redundant. A critical analysis of Rice's work can be found in
S. T. Joshi's book
The Modern Weird Tale (2001).
Return to Catholicism
In 1998, after spending most of her adult life as a self-described
atheist, Rice returned to her
Catholic faith, which she had not practiced since she was 18. In October of 2005, as she reaffirmed her Catholic faith, Rice announced in a
Newsweek article that she would "write only for the Lord." She called
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, her first novel in this genre, the beginning of a trilogy that will chronicle the life of
Jesus.
In an interview with
Christianity Today, headlined
"Interview with a Penitent", Rice declared that will never again write another vampire novel, saying; "I would never go back, not even if they say, 'You will be financially ruined; you've got to write another vampire book.' I would say no. I have no choice. I would be a fool for all eternity to turn my back on God like that."
Many of her fans reacted with shock to the news of her religious and literary conversion, admonishing her in magazine articles, internet blogs and reader reviews found on the web. Rice responded in a post on
Amazon.com (see below) that stated: "And yes, the Chronicles are no more! Thank God!"
Whether Rice would continue to be a supporter of liberal causes like
gay rights (her son Christopher is openly gay) and a critic of
George W. Bush was much debated; she has said that Christianity's stance on
homosexuality was something she wrestled with as she considered converting. She remains a passionate supporter of the rights of Jewish and Christian gays and their right to participate in religious worship. Her pattern of political contributions since 1998 suggests that she continues to identify with the
Democratic Party [
2].
Leaving New Orleans
Rice discovered she had Type 1
diabetes when she went into a
diabetic coma in December 1998. She is an advocate for people to get tested for diabetes.
In 2002, Stan Rice died after a long illness. In her subsequent depression, Rice's weight rose to 254 pounds. In response to
sleep apnea and other weight-related problems, Rice had
gastric bypass surgery in
2003.
On
January 30,
2004, having already put the largest of her three homes up for sale, Rice announced her plans to leave New Orleans. She cited living alone since the death of her husband and her son's moving out of state as the reasons. "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." Rice may also have wished for more privacy from the constant attentions of her fans, who were known to camp out in front of her house; up to 200 or more would gather to see her leave for church on Sundays.
In spring 2005 Anne Rice moved to
La Jolla,
California, to be nearer her son, Christopher. She moved less than a year later to
Rancho Mirage for a warmer climate and a "simpler life."
Amazon.com incident
On
September 6,
2004, Rice posted a reply to a number of negative reviews that had appeared on
Amazon.com regarding
Blood Canticle. She titled her reply,
"From the Author to the Some of the Negative Voices Here." This post generated a great deal of publicity online - partly because authors rarely post or respond to reviews on Amazon, and partly because of the tone and nature of her text. Many previous reviews had criticized the quality of writing in
Blood Canticle as lazy or shoddy; so when Rice replied by writing an article (of 1,200 words) wherein she proudly dismisses the utility of editors, the incident became fodder for
weblogs and
Internet sites.
Film
In
1994,
Neil Jordan directed a relatively faithful
motion picture adaptation of
Interview with the Vampire, from Rice's own screenplay.
A second film adaptation of the
Vampire Chronicles came out in 2002, combining incidents from the second and third books in the series but released under the title of the third book,
The Queen of the Damned. The plot was substantially altered from that of the book, and the film was poorly received by fans and critics alike.
A 1994 film titled
Exit to Eden, based loosely on the book Rice published as
Anne Rampling, starred
Rosie O'Donnell and
Dan Aykroyd. The work transformed from a love story into a police comedy, possibly due to the explicit S&M themes of the book.
The Feast of All Saints was made into a miniseries in 2001 by director Peter Medak and renamed
Feast of All Saints.
Theatre
On
April 25,
2006, the musical
Lestat, based on Rice's
Vampire Chronicles books, opened at the
Palace Theatre on
Broadway after having its world premiere in
San Francisco, California in December
2005. With music by
Elton John and lyrics by
Bernie 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 mostly poor reviews by critics and disappointing attendance. Lestat closed a month later on
May 28,
2006, after just 33 previews and 39 regular performances.
Fan fiction
Rice has an adamant stance against
fan fiction based on her work, releasing a statement on
April 7,
2000 that prohibited all such efforts. This caused the removal of thousands of fanfics from the popular
FanFiction.Net website.
The Vampire Chronicles:Interview with the Vampire (1976)
The Vampire Lestat (1985)
The Queen of the Damned (1988)
The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
Memnoch The Devil (1995)
The Vampire Armand (1998)
Merrick (2000)
Blood and Gold (2001)
Blackwood Farm (2002)
Blood Canticle (2003)
New Tales of the Vampires: (Other vampire tales that are not within the main sequence, but in the same fictional world)Pandora (1998)
Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
Lives of The Mayfair Witches:( It's a good idea to read these novels before reading "Blackwood Farm" as the two series merge at this point.)
The Witching Hour (1990)
Lasher (1993)
Taltos (1994)
Blackwood Farm
Single Novels:
*The Feast of All Saints (1979)
*Cry to Heaven (1982)
*The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned
(1989)
*Servant of the Bones (1996)
*Violin (1997)
The Christ Series:
*Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005) - Rice has suggested that there will be three sequels to this work
Short Fiction:
*October 4th, 1948
*Nicholas and Jean
*The Master of Rampling Gate
(Vampire Story)
Work written under the pseudonym Anne Rampling:
*Exit to Eden (1985)
*Belinda (1986)
Erotica written under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure:
*The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983)
*Beauty's Punishment (1984)
*Beauty's Release'' (1985)
*
List of bestselling novels in the United States*Rice, Anne (2005), "Author's Note" in
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0375412018
*
Anne Rice's official website*
Reviews written by Anne Rice on amazon.com*
Anne Rice's new book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt*
InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Anne Rice (TV Interview)
*
Two audio interviews (1985 and 1988) of Anne Rice by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio*
Anne Rice: Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? (regarding Hurricane Katrina)
*
Doctor discusses Anne Rice's gastric bypass procedure in-depth in archived radio show*
BBC News: "Disappointing start for Elton musical"*
Anne Rice Timeline*
Bio and Pictures
