Post by Graveyardbride on Dec 12, 2021 8:21:59 GMT -5
‘Vampire’ Author Anne Rice Dead at 80
Anne Rice, the gothic novelist of New Orleans widely known for her bestselling novel Interview with the Vampire died in a California hospital late Saturday, December 11, from complications related to a stroke at the age of 80. Her son, Christopher, was with her when she died. “In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage,” he said
Born October 4, 1941, in New Orleans, Rice is renowned the world over as a writer of gothic fiction. In the early 1970s, following the death of her 5-year-old daughter, Michelle, she started converting one of her stories into a novel, the result of which was Interview with the Vampire, published by Knoph in 1976. The book chronicles the life of Louis de Pointe du Lac and Michelle served as inspiration for the child vampire, Claudia. The novel was the first of 10 in what is collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles. In 1994, the book became a film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Queen of the Damned was adapted to the silver screen in 2002, and other adaptations of her novels include The Feast of All Saints in 2001 and Exit to Eden (written under the pen name Anne Rampling) in 1994. Earlier this month, AMC ordered a series based on Lives of the Mayfair Witches and casting was recently finalized on The Vampire Chronicles.
Ms. Rice will be laid to rest in a private ceremony at the family mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, where her husband Stan Rice, who died December 9, 2002, and daughter, Michele, who died August 5, 1972, are entombed. Michele was exhumed from her grave in northern California and moved to the mausoleum following her father’s death.
Sources: Naman Ramachandran, Variety, December 12, 2021; and The Associated Press, December 11, 2021.
