62 Facts About Anne Rice

Anne Rice was best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles.

Anne Rice was raised in an observant Catholic family but became an agnostic as a young adult.

Anne Rice began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire, while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s.

Anne Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of modern times.

Anne Rice's writing style and the literary content of her works have been analyzed by literary commentators.

Anne Rice was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60.

Anne Rice and Stan had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is an author.

Anne Rice spent most of her youth in New Orleans, which forms the backdrop against which many of her works are set.

Allen, who began working as a domestic shortly after separating from her alcoholic husband, was an important early influence in Anne Rice's life, keeping the family and household together as Anne Rice's mother sank deeper into alcoholism.

Anne Rice was a bit of a Bohemian, a bit of mad woman, a bit of a genius, and a great deal of a great teacher.

Anne Rice told the nun "Anne," which she considered a pretty name.

Anne Rice was confirmed in the Catholic Church when she was twelve years old and took the full name Howard Allen Frances Alphonsus Liguori O'Brien, adding the names of a saint and of an aunt, who was a nun.

Anne Rice first met her future husband, Stan Anne Rice, in a journalism class while they were both students at Richardson High School.

Anne Rice dropped out when she ran out of money and was unable to find employment.

Anne Rice persuaded her former roommate from Texas Woman's University, Ginny Mathis, to join her, and they found an apartment in the Haight-Ashbury district.

For Easter vacation Anne returned home to Texas, rekindling her relationship with Stan Rice.

Some time later, Anne received a special delivery letter from Stan Rice asking her to marry him.

Anne Rice soon became disenchanted with the emphasis on literary criticism and the language requirements.

Anne Rice's daughter was diagnosed with acute granulocytic leukemia in 1970, while Rice was still in the graduate program.

Anne Rice's son Christopher was born in Berkeley, California, in 1978; he has become a best-selling author in his own right, publishing his first novel at the age of 22.

Anne Rice, an admitted alcoholic, and her husband, Stan Anne Rice, quit drinking in mid-1979 so their son would not have the life that she had as a child.

In 2008, Anne Rice posted a YouTube video to celebrate 28 years of her sobriety.

In 1973, while still grieving the loss of her daughter, Anne Rice took a previously written short story and turned it into her first novel, the bestselling Interview with the Vampire.

Anne Rice became obsessed with germs, thinking that she contaminated everything she touched, engaged in frequent and obsessive hand washing and obsessively checked locks on windows and doors.

Anne Rice then returned to the vampire genre with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, her bestselling sequels to Interview with the Vampire.

Shortly after her June 1988 return to New Orleans, Anne Rice penned The Witching Hour as an expression of her joy at coming home.

Anne Rice published Violin, a tale of a ghostly haunting, in 1997.

Anne Rice appeared on an episode of The Real World: New Orleans that aired in 2000.

Anne Rice began another series called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, published in 2005, chronicling the life of Jesus.

Anne Rice wrote the first two books in her Songs of the Seraphim series, Angel Time and Of Love and Evil, and her memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.

On March 9,2014, Anne Rice announced on her son Christopher's radio show, The Dinner Party with Christopher Anne Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn, that she had completed another book in the Vampire Chronicles, titled, Prince Lestat, a "true sequel" to Queen of the Damned.

Anne Rice's novels are well regarded by many members of the LGBT+ community, some of whom have perceived her vampire characters as allegorical symbols of isolation and social alienation.

Anne Rice's writings have been identified as having had a major impact on later developments within the genre of vampire fiction.

Anne Rice returned to the Catholic Church in 1998 after decades of atheism.

Anne Rice fell into a coma, later determined to be caused by diabetic ketoacidosis, on December 14,1998, and nearly died.

Anne Rice was later diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 1, and was insulin-dependent.

Anne Rice nearly died again from an intestinal blockage or bowel obstruction, a common complication of gastric bypass surgery, in 2004.

Anne Rice announced that she had made plans to leave New Orleans on her website on January 18,2004.

Anne Rice cited living alone since the death of her husband and her son moving to California as the reasons for her move.

Anne Rice put the largest of her three homes up for sale on January 30,2004, and moved to a gated community in Kenner, Louisiana.

None of her former New Orleans properties were flooded, and Anne Rice remained a vocal advocate for the city and related relief projects.

Anne Rice left La Jolla less than a year after moving there, stating in January 2006 that the weather was too cold.

Anne Rice purchased a six-bedroom home in Rancho Mirage, California in late 2005 and moved there in 2006, allowing her to be closer to her son in Los Angeles.

Anne Rice auctioned off her large collection of antique dolls at Thierault's in Chicago on July 18,2010.

Anne Rice auctioned off her wardrobe, jewelry, household possessions and collectibles featured in her many books on eBay starting in mid-2010 through early 2011.

Anne Rice sold a large portion of her library collection to Powell's Books.

Anne Rice publicly announced her disdain for the current state of Christianity on her Facebook page on July 28,2010:.

Anne Rice stated that she was a secular humanist in a Facebook post on April 14,2013.

Anne Rice said that Christ is still central to her life, but not in the way he is presented by organized religion, in a July 28,2014, Facebook post.

Anne Rice died from complications of a stroke at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California on December 11,2021, at the age of 80.

On her Facebook page, Anne Rice distanced herself from the film, and stated that she feels the filmmakers "mutilated" her work in adapting the novel.

The 1994 film Exit to Eden, based loosely on the book Rice published as Anne Rampling, stars Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd.

On November 8,2014, during an interview with her long-time editor, Victoria Wilson, at the Chicago Humanities Festival, Anne Rice revealed that filming had finished on the movie and was going into post-production.

However, in November 2016, when Universal Pictures did not renew the contract, the film and television rights reverted to Anne Rice, who began developing The Vampire Chronicles into a television series with her son, Christopher.

In 1997, Anne Rice wrote the story for a television pilot entitled Rag and Bone, featuring elements of both horror and crime fiction.

Earth Angels was a presentation pilot written by Anne Rice, produced by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television, and picked up by NBC.

In November 2016, Anne Rice announced on Facebook that the rights to her novels had reverted to her despite earlier plans for other adaptations.

Anne Rice said that she and her son, author Christopher Anne Rice, would be developing and executive producing a potential television series based on the novels.

Anne and Christopher Rice were to serve as executive producers on any projects developed.

Several of Anne Rice's novels have been adapted into comic books and manga.

Anne Rice initially expressed an adamant stance against fan fiction based on her works, and particularly in opposition to such fiction based on The Vampire Chronicles, releasing a statement in 2000 that disallowed all such efforts, citing copyright issues.

In 2012, Metro reported that Anne Rice developed a milder stance on the issue.