R.I.P. Interview With The Vampire writer Anne Rice
Anne Rice, best known as the author of the Vampire Chronicles series (including Interview With A Vampire) has died
Aux News Anne Rice
Author Anne Rice, best known for her Vampire Chronicles books (including Interview With The Vampire), has died. The news was announced by her son, fellow author Christopher Rice, who said on social media that his mother had died last night from “complications resulting from a stroke.” Rice was 80.
Born to an Irish Catholic family in New Orleans in 1941, Rice’s mother died from alcoholism when Rice was a teenager and her father sent her and her sisters off to a school. When her father remarried, he moved the family to Texas. There, Rice met her future husband, poet Stan Rice, who—as noted in Christopher Rice’s statement—died nearly 19 years ago to the day of Anne Rice’s death.
Rice later moved to San Francisco, studying creative writing in various academic programs throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. After the two were married, Stan Rice joined her in San Francisco and she gave birth to a daughter, Michele, in 1966, who died in 1972 from acute granulocytic leukemia.
Around this time, Rice got the idea to turn an old short story she had written into a full novel: Interview With A Vampire. It wasn’t published until several years later, in 1976, but her soon-to-be prolific writing career took off after that. Rice published several novels even before returning to vampires, including The Feast Of All Saints, Cry To Heaven, and erotic novels (written under various pseudonyms) like The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty and Exit To Eden (later adapted into a Garry Marshall buddy-cop comedy that was universally panned, including by Rice herself).
Rice then wrote her first two Interview sequels, The Vampire Lestat and The Queen Of The Damned, with the series eventually spanning more than a dozen titles and ending with 2018's Blood Communion: A Tale Of Prince Lestat. That’s in addition to all of her non-vampire books, like The Witching Hour, Servant Of The Bones, more erotic novels published under a pseudonym, and—notably—a handful of distinctly religious books about the life of Jesus.
In 2005, after a number of health issues, Rice publicly announced that she would only be using her platform as a famous novelist to promote Christianity, leading to the books Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt and Christ The Lord: The Road To Cana. By 2010, though, Rice (a longtime supporter of LGBTQ and abortion rights) had become disillusioned by organized religion and left the Christian church, saying that “following Christ does not mean following His followers.”
After that, she returned to horror fiction, including the Vampire Chronicles series but also werewolf books like The Wolf Gift Chronicles (and one last sequel to The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty, for good measure). In the last few years, her vampire books have enjoyed a renewed interest from both readers and production companies, with several movie and TV studios trying to chase the high of 1994's Interview With A Vampire adaptation—which starred Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst.
Just last year, AMC got the rights to both The Vampire Chronicles and Rice’s Lives Of The Mayfair Witches with the intention of creating an Anne Rice TV universe. As of this summer, Sam Reid had been cast as AMC’s Lestat with Jacob Anderson playing Louis. That should all be kicking off at some point in 2022.
In his social media statement, Christopher Rice said that, while a private ceremony will be held initially for his mother, a “celebration of her life” will be held next year in New Orleans with “the participation of her friends, readers, and fans who brought her such joy and inspiration throughout her life.”
94 Comments
Who drives the stake in her heart to be sure?
Barsanti anagrams to: I stab An.R.
Jeremy’s… Iron?
You got the name of her book wrong. Please fix it.
“R.I.P. Interview With A Vampire wrtier Anne Rice”
The quality “wrting” we’ve come to expect from The AV Club. Maybe California has copy-editors?
You clearly need to adjust your expectations.
In Anne Rice’s own words, an editor will only choke your writing, getting rid of your voice. Every word Anne wrote in her books was perfect as it was, hence why she refused to be edited (and why her writing went downhill after The Vampire Lestat.)
In a way, there’s no more fitting obituary to Rice than an unedited one. It’s as she would’ve wanted it.
I do feel bad for the writers here honestly, it’s not their fault that the site has been cut to the bone and there isn’t enough editorial oversight to catch these things. All writers have typos, it’s on the publication not to publish them.
“Interview With A Vampire” is actually the correct pre-timeline divergence title. If you’re remembered “Interview With The Vampire” I’d recommend shutting up about it real quick before the timecops show up.
I’d say Rice was not only wrtier, she was the wrtiest.
I always liked her writing. Even though many of her plots were absolutely bonkers (some in a good way, some not), I found her to be very vivid and descriptive in her prose. One of those writers that makes you feel like you’re present in whatever scene she’s describing (I’m from New Orleans and many of her descriptions of local scenery are absolutely spot on).
It wasn’t until years after reading Interview that I read about her daughter who died tragically young and realized that the character of Claudia was clearly based on that experience and for whatever good or bad you might say about that book, that character and her arc absolutely stayed with you.
Oof, does it ever. One Claudia slowly crumbling to ash is worth a billion Thanos-snap-CGI-powderings.
Oh my god… she wrote an immortal child who can never grow up as a stand in for a child she lost. That’s moving.
Sounds like she finally lost her battle with Imminent Death Syndrome.
There it is. That’s the comment I was looking for.
Years ago I loaned my signed copy of The Mummy, or Rameses The Damned to a friend, who dropped it into a sink full of water. She bought a copy and sent it to Rice with a heartfelt letter explaining the situation. Rice signed the new copy with a personalized message, and sent it back to me. The friend fessed up, I told her that it was an accident and there was nothing to forgive, and since then I’ve thought fondly of Anne Rice.Oh, and AVClub’s editing has gone to hell, if it ever existed.
Or rather, to Los Angeles, forcibly.
A distinction without a difference.
Years ago, I was moving from one crazy, dangerous neighborhood to another slightly less dangerous, yet equally crazy neighborhood, when a mentally ill homeless person randomly tried to cut me with a box cutter. Just one of those things. One second he was trudging by silently, the next he was coming at me, also silently. Without thinking, I grabbed for the nearest object, which turned out to be a threadbare paperback copy of “The Witching Hour: Book One of The Lives of the Mayfair Witches Saga”, Anne Rice’s insane, gigantic 1200+ page historical genre spec fiction exercise. Luckily for me, that thing was a goddamn brick. I was able to simultaneously fend off/beat back the man’s attacks, sustaining only minimal finger cuts, and send him skittering off into the night (presumably to seek out readers of slimmer novels with whom to engage in bloodsport). You know, I’ve read a lot of her books over the years and many of them were quite good, but I will always owe her for making that one pretty good book way, way too long.She was more than an author. She was a weapons designer.RIP.
Best obit ever.
This story deserves to move to the head of the AMC development list.
I dunno, it just doesn’t have the punchiness of a tweet.
Thank god you didn’t only happen to have Kafka’s Metamorphosis on you.
“Ha ha, you think The Great Gatsby is going to save you? Think again!”
“I grabbed for the nearest object, which unfortunately turned out to be an abridged paperback copy of The Poky Little Puppy.”
The outcome would have been far more from had the book been “Reader’s Digest’s Condensed See Spot Run”, in toddler cloth.
I don’t care how fake this story is, tonight I believe it (and in vampires too).
The pen was mightier than the sword that day, for which we are all grateful.
Two things:1. She sounds like a fascinatingly complicated person2. Given where things have gone since her heyday, she’s gotta be one of the most influential writers of recent times, right? You wouldn’t have Twilight and really half of YA or the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood books or Fifty Shades without her (she of course being a much better writer than most of those following).
Is Bram Stoker gonna have to choke a bitch?
Please. Stoker gets in line behind Le Fanu at best.
Polidori FTW.
Ossenfelder if we’re really going to the wall.
Polidori’s “The Vampyre” was supposedly based on Lord Byron’s entry to the contest where Mary Shelly won for Frankenstein.
Yup. They reportedly had a falling out – the story is about not trusting in a supposed “great creature” because it’ll only hurt you and abuse you, which is a pretty apparent shot at Byron.
Ultimately it all goes back to that fucking Gilgamesh epic.
Given where things have gone since her heyday, she’s gotta be one of the
most influential writers of recent times, right? You wouldn’t have
Twilight and really half of YA or the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood books or Fifty Shades without her (she of course being a much better writer than most of those following).True, but this means we can also blame her for all that~
And the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG which was so close to her works that she probably should have received a writer’s credit.
When the V:tM guys sued Kevin Grevioux for the Underworld script, his reaction had to be, “You gotta be kidding me! I expected Anne Rice, but this is ridiculous!”
Frankly, the recent-years dominance of stupid, boring zombies and the survivalist goons it has been decided are needed to serve as protagonists against them has me looking back nostalgically at the heyday of the foppish drama-queen vampire.
Both rooted in the same folkloric monster though. Where are all the revenant movies at?
Eh. Yeah, I know that argument, and I’m kind of done with it. I’m only really talking about the more modern pop-culture iterations, anyway.
Pearl Jam syndrome
True, but this means we can also blame her for all that~I know it’s easy to snark, but as the father of a now 9-year-old who I’m trying to get to discover pleasure reading, I’m all for *anything* that kids enjoy reading, even if they will look back at it 20 years later and roll their eyes.
I realize there is no limit to how poorly Sam Barsanti articles can be written, but maybe double check the name of the book before you mention it in the headline?
As pointed out above (and still showing in the URL), he actually managed to misspell “writer” in the title at first (not being able to spell “writer” is hilarious appropriate for Barsanti). The fact that the title now “only” has the wrong article in a book title is a minor miracle.
wrtier – it’s Frechn for writer.
To pronounce it right, you have to roll both ‘r’s and also the ‘i’.
I don’t know how they do it at the AV Club, but at most sites the wrtier of the article doesn’t create the headlines.
That’s down to the etidor.
I admit I’m surprised that they didn’t even run it through spellcechk.
Spellcheck – how witches pay for magic.
the what in the where now
That has been my experience, yes. Headlines and any site design choices (ads, comments) AND slideshows are things the writers have no control over. Well slideshows they do in the sense that they get told they have to make one. Some put the effort in, some squirt out a few lines of bullshit because it’s been a busy ass day and that’s all they had time for before the deadline.And how this place has been going down hill the last few years I can’t say I entirely blame them.
Her works provided me, a young, gay kid growing up in Oklahoma in the late 90s, with many, many hours of escapism and enjoyment. May she rest in peace.
I’m pretty disappointed that more people here didn’t appreciate Rice. I’ve never read any of her books, but the movie of Interview with the Vampire was fantastic. I remember seeing it senior year of high school when it came out, and it spoke to and stuck with this straight dude like few movies have. It kindled an enduring love for Paris and New Orleans as well as for everything Brad Pitt does. It also taught me costume dramas weren’t necessarily stuffy, boring shit for old people.
Exit To Eden (later adapted into a Garry Marshall buddy-cop comedy that was universally panned, including by Rice herself)I hadn’t realized Exit to Eden was based on anything besides a horny but terribly written fantasy of some screenwriter who’d watched too much Skinemax. It was that bad; I may now have to read Rice’s version.Also, poor Dana Delany. She’d turned down millions to pose in Playboy and nudity in other movies only to finally decide to do so in it.
Exit to Eden was a good book. The Sleeping Beauty books were weird, though. The one thing I remember from Sleeping Beauty was someone being trussed up in something akin to a sex swing and honey was poured over their genitals so ants could run all over them.
Delanys career never quite recovered.
Correction: Interview With A Vampire was written by Anita Rice, Anne Rice’s non-union Mexican equivalent.
I think you mean Ana Arroz.
Kevin Rice.
I loved the film version, with Tomaso Cruz.
Tomás Mapother.
The forth, if you please!
Loved her books when I was a teenager and undergrad. The later Vampire Chronicles books are some of the most enjoyably bonkers bestsellers ever.
She’s writing fanfic about her new husband Jesus now
Queen of the Saved
I hadn’t realized she was that old. I know that Interview was written in the seventies, but I always think of it as late 80’s/early 90’s, so I think I always assumed Rice was about fifteen years younger.
And bless: despite being deeply religious and having a feminist sensibility forged in the 1970s, Rice managed to depart this vale of tears without as far as I can tell ever once going full TERF.So that’s writers of disreputable vampire fiction and bondage porn: 1; beloved author of acclaimed YA books: 0.
Can confirm. She liked trans people. Maybe even a little too much in a worshipping kinda way but hey I’m not gonna complain one bit.
Maybe I’m not the target audience, but Atlas Shrugged was dull as dishwater.
Atlas Sucked?
RIP Anne of Green Gables
She was truly a promising young woman.
She was ahead by a century.
And disappointing you is gettin’ me down?
You might say she was tragically hip.
She wrote some of my favorites, such as A Witching Hour, A Vampire Lestat, Memnoch Is A Devil, The Tale of A Body Thief, and Queen of Some Damned.
There were lesser works of course. Christ, Some Lord out of Egypt was pretty boring, and I could never get into the Slumbering Beauty stuff. Too much spanking.
You mean “Memnoch the Devil”.
Book One of The Lives
I could never quite get into her fiction, but she was a no-fucks-given, bad-ass of a writer I could always admire.
She could be precious about her writing, but she also had some very healthy, powerful things to say about finding your audience rather than pandering to them — basically: be as precious and weird as you want, and then go find the people who get it rather than trying to please the people who don’t get it.
RIP author who’s work inspired for one the worst-ever episodes of TNG after Riker grew his beard.
Well, you mentioned the title five times and got it correct one out of the 5. So, good job….?
You heard it first, here at the The/V Club.
Breaking news: AV Club being sued by the Rice estate for using the Ann Rice character in this obituary without consent.
this was the comment i was scrolling for, lmao.
The indefinite article gives the novel’s title a completely different tone. It almost sounds like a fun jaunt. “Hey, I’m gonna go interview a vampire. Let’s see how it goes!”
I wonder how it works in Russian or Chinese (neither of which have words for “a” or “the”) — the title would be basically “Interview with Vampire” in both languages.
In the 90s Anne Rice stayed a couple of times at a hotel i worked at in Upstate NY and she was the easiest rich/famous person to take care of. She was lowkey and very generous. Some rich ppl are generous tippers but they make you know to your very marrow that they are doing you a favor and that need to bow and scrape for it. Rice was different and just as easy going as could be and would slip you a 20 for even saying a courteous word. RIP.
Rice seemed to have a perpetually adolescent mindset to her, constantly making declarative lifestyle changes, and then making equally declarative breaks with them. The south sucks, I’m moving to California! I’m reclaiming my roots and moving back to New Orleans! Actually fuck that, back to California! I’m a Christian and I’m only going to write about Christianity from now on! Never mind, religion sucks! Good for her, it probably kept life interesting.
A lot can be said about Anne Rice. But I’ll let her opinion on trans people speak for itself. What a woman!