“What does it mean to die when you can live until the end of the world?” Anne Rice wrote this quote and took the meaning to new levels as she wrote a fantastic blood sucking saga anyone would want to sink their teeth into. Anne Rice is a cool, confident, and creative writer whose passion for writing rings through every word she writes.
Anne Rice was born October 4, 1941 though she goes by the name Anne Rice her real birth name is Howard Allen O’Brien. Her mother named her that because that was her father’s name and she thought it was a good idea. Howard Allen started going by Anne Rice in first grade. Currently Anne Rice is still alive.
Anne Rice was the youngest in her family and has one sister named Alice Borchardt. Her favorite movie growing up was “Dracula’s Daughter” and that’s been an influence on why and how she writes vampire novels. Another interesting fact is Anne Rice was and still is afraid of the dark, which is kind of ironic because she wrote books about vampires and vampires love the dark.
Contrary to Anne’s happy childhood she has gone through a lot with her family. When Anne was fifteen she had a tragic incident happen. Anne’s mother who had long been an alcoholic died because of alcohol abuse. Her father moved the family to Texas two years later and remarried. In 1961 Anne married Stan Rice they were high school sweethearts and he proposed to her from a telegram while she was in Texas. On September 21, 1966 Anne and Stan Rice had their first daughter named Michelle, but tragedy struck when Michelle was diagnosed with Leukemia in 1970. On August 5th their daughter Michelle died at the age of five. But on March 11, 1978 Anne and Stan Rice had their son Christopher. Later in life he grew up to be a writer. But another tragedy happened to Anne on December 2, 2002. Anne’s high school sweetheart and husband Stan Rice died of cancer.
Although her teen years and adult life were not the best they could be her school and academic life was great. For first grade she went to Redemptorist Catholic School. That school is important because that’s the place where she first was called Anne. She went to Texas Woman’s University but then relocated to San Francisco and completed college there. She went to San Francisco State in 1964 and got a B.A in political science.
Anne Rice has had a big variety of jobs throughout her life. She was previously a cook, a waitress, and even insurance claims adjuster. Anne Rice wrote all through her life but she didn’t start writing until her daughter Michelle died, that’s when she wrote her first book Interview with the Vampire. The death of her daughter in a way did influence Anne’s book. She wouldn’t have written such dark books without her daughter’s death. It is also said that Claudia is modeled after her daughter.
One of the big people who was influential in Anne’s writing were her own parents especially her mother who died because of alcohol abuse. Anne would sit in the middle of Haight- Ashbury and write while others were hanging around the in crowd doing various activities. The reason Anne Rice wrote her first book Interview with a Vampire was because she went into a spiraling depression when her daughter died. She channeled all of her anger and depression into a hit vampire novel and published it in 1976 but wrote it in 1973. Anne rice also writes under the names Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure.
Anne Rice was also a World Fantasy Best Novel nominee (1986) for The Vampire Lestat and a Bram Stoker Best Novel nominee (1989) for The Queen of the Damned. Sadly recently Anne Rice stopped writing her vampire books and found her religion again which is why she now writes book about religion.
Anne Rice is currently still alive and is sixty-eight years old. Anne’s books are still widely known and read. Many bands use Anne Rice and her books as inspiration for their music and her books were made into plays and even made into hit books. Anne Rice is still living but already has built up a huge legacy. She is a huge influence for many of the current vampire novels and recently her books have become huge because of the recent vampire craze.
I personally love Anne Rice’s book and am sad she stopped writing vampire novels. I would recommend her books to everyone and anyone. I really hope you go and check her books out.
