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Anne Rice (born 1941)
In 1966, Anne's first child, Michele, was born. Three years later, the Rices relocated to Berkeley. Michele was diagnosed with leukemia in 1970, dying from the condition in 1972. Anne at first dealt with the loss through drinking, staying in an alcoholic haze in which she stayed up all night drinking and slept during the day. She later dealt with her grief by exploring the idea of a child who could not die, eventually developing it into the novel that would make her famous, Interview With the Vampire. Interview took a unique perspective on the vampire myth, presenting creatures which, though no longer human, still had human feelings, doubts, and fears. At first rejected by publishers, Interview was sold to Alfred A. Knopf in 1974 and published in 1976. Film rights were sold to Paramount Pictures, with Anne writing a proposed script which would feature David Bowie and Mick Jagger as the central vampires of the story, Lestat and Louis. The film project did not materialize. After returning from a tour of Europe with Stan, Anne Rice gave birth to her second child, Christopher, in 1979. She also continued to write novels, including a series of S&M novels centered around the story of Sleeping Beauty, written under the name A.N. Rocquelaure. Two more, Exit to Eden and Belinda, were written as Anne Rampling. As Anne Rice she wrote The Feast of All Saints, about a mulatto family in old New Orleans, and Cry to Heaven, a story of the castrati in eighteenth century Italy, suggested by the life of Farinelli. In these novels she explored many of the homosexual and bisexual themes which had only been hinted at in Interview, and began developing a large fan base within the gay community. Anne herself would later say in interviews that she often fell in love not only with men and women, but also ideas, cities, works of art, and periods of history. In 1985, Anne Rice returned to her vampires with The Vampire Lestat, an account of Lestat in the years before and after Interview With the Vampire. The sequel proved even more popular than its predecessor, and propelled Anne Rice to the status of a cult icon. It was shortly followed by The Queen of the Damned, which first introduced the Talamasca, a society of watchers who observed and recorded the activities of vampires and other preternatural phenomena, a concept later used in the television series Highlander and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This idea was fleshed out further in the Mayfair Witches trilogy, about a clan of powerful witches haunted, helped, and then hunted by the mysterious creature known as Lasher. Two more novels about Lestat were The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil, followed by novels centered around other vampire characters, particularly Armand, first introduced in Interview, and Marius, who became a vampire during the reign of Augustus Caesar. Blood and Gold, concerns the adventures of the vampire Marius in the centuries between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance. Vittorio the Vampire was the personal account of a Florentine blood drinker unrelated to Lestat or his clan. Blackwood Farm,released in 2002, continues the adventures of Lestat as he tries to help a fledgling vampire battle a parasitic doppelganger. Anne Rice also explored the classic myths of ghosts in Violin, djinns in Servant of the Bones, and immortality and mummies in The Mummy. Fans of Anne Rice are legion, spawning numerous organizations dedicated to her works in particular and to vampires in general. Many flock to New Orleans, where Anne and her husband and son relocated in 1989, both to see her home and the many places mentioned in her novels, as well as to attend her annual Halloween balls. In 1994 two of her novels, Exit to Eden and Interview With the Vampire, were finally adapted to the screen. Anne was at first displeased with the choices of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt to play the roles of Lestat and Louis, but her remarks changed to praise once she had seen the finished film. Exit to Eden, rewritten as a comedy to make its S&M themes more palatable to audiences, was dismal by comparison. A film adaptation of Queen of the Damned, released in early 2002, starring the late Aaliyah as the first vampire, Akasha, and Stuart Townsend as Lestat, was also somewhat disappointing, partly because of liberties taken with the story and characters. Anne Rice currently resides in the Garden District of New Orleans. In 2003, her husband Stan, who had gained attention for himself as an artist and poet, passed away after a battle with brain cancer. Their son Christopher has recently come out as gay, and also written his own first novel, A Gathering of Souls. After briefly lapsing into a coma in 2000, Anne Rice was diagnosed with diabetes, but now has the condition under control and continues to write her novels. Her latest, Blood Canticle, relates Lestat's further involvement with the Mayfair family and Lasher's Taltos progeny. Anne Rice's published works include Katherine and Jean (1969); Interview With the Vampire (1976); The Feast of All Saints (1979); Cry to Heaven (1982); The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983); Beauty's Punishment (1984); The Vampire Lestat (1985); Beauty's Release (1985); Exit to Eden (1985); Belinda (1986); The Queen of the Damned (1988); The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989); The Witching Hour (1990); The Tale of the Body Thief (1992); Lasher (1993); Taltos (1994); Memnoch the Devil (1995); Servant of the Bones (1996); Violin (1997); Pandora: New Tales of the Vampires (1998); The Vampire Armand (1998); Vittorio the Vampire (2000); Blood and Gold (2001); Blackwood Farm (2002); and Blood Canticle (2003). Links: The Official Anne Rice Web Site Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles Official site for the Anne Rice mailing list Anne Rice Page at Random House
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