Biography
A bestselling author of Gothic horror, Anne Rice is best known for her Vampire Chronicles series, the first of which, Interview With The Vampire, was adapted into a film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Named after her father, Howard Allen Frances O’Brien was born in 1941 into a strictly Catholic house. On her first day of school, she told everyone her name was Anne, and in 1947 her name was legally changed. She spent her childhood in New Orleans until the death of her mother when she was 15; when her father remarried a year later, he moved the family to Texas. While attending high school, she met her future husband Stan Rice.
After graduating, she attended college until she ran out of money, then found work at an insurance company. In 1961, aged 20 years old, she married the 18-year old Stan. They moved to San Francisco when they both attended San Francisco State University studying creative writing. In 1966, they had a daughter (she died aged just 5 from leukemia), and their son was born in 1978.
In 1973, while grieving for her daughter, Rice found an old short story and concentrated on turning it into a novel. Interview With The Vampire was published in 1976 to mixed reviews, although its sequels enjoyed wide success.
Writing historical, horror, supernatural, religious as well as non-fiction, Anne Rice’s lyrical prose, deeply complex characters and dark themes made her a bestselling author who helped redefine the horror genre, and especially how vampires would be portrayed by future generations. With her fame growing throughout the 1980s, television shows, films, comics and manga have been adapted from her work, ensuring her legacy, much like the vampire, will live forever.
