Rice, Anne,
1941-2021, American novelist, b. New Orleans, La., as Howard Katherine
O'Brien, San Francisco State Univ. (B.A., 1964; M.A., 1972). Rice was raised
in New Orleans until her mother died when she 15; her father remarried and
the family moved to Texas, where she briefly attended Texas Woman's Univ.
She moved to San Francisco, and completed her college education, earning a
degree in political science. In 1972, her daughter died of leukemia,
inspiring her to write what became her first novel, Interview with a
Vampire (1976), which became a major best-seller and spawned
over a dozen more novels under the overall title of the Vampire
Chronicles, a film adaptation, and a Broadway musical scored by
Elton John. She has had a
troubled relationship with the Christian church, alternating disavowing
organized religion while embracing spirituality, a subject of many of her
books. She wrote a variety of other novels, some under the pseudonyms of
Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure. Her novels are said to have sold over 150
million copies, making her among the best-selling of all American authors.
See her memoir, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Journey
(2008).
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