Anne Rice Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen O'Brien on
October 4, 1941), the second daughter of an Irish Catholic family, is an
author of horror/fantasy stories, who often writes about vampires,
mummies and witches. Her works have been a major influence on the Goth
youth subculture, and she has published several works with sado-masochistic
themes. She was married to the late poet Stan Rice and is the mother of
gay novelist Christopher Rice. Her daughter, Michelle, was born
September 21, 1966 and died of leukemia on August 5, 1972.
She was born and has spent most of her life
in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city that forms the background against
which most of her stories take place. Known for her avid interest in art
and culture, she and her family occasionally took trips overseas to
study the art later mentioned in her stories.
Rice has also published under the pen Anne
Rices
Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure, the latter of which was used
primarily for more adult-oriented material. Her fiction is often
described as lush and descriptive, and her characters' sexuality is
fluid, often displaying homoerotic feelings towards each other. She also
deals with philosophical and historic themes, weaving them in to the
dense pattern of her books, giving them a high intellectual if not also
a high literary content. To her admirers, her books are among the best
in modern popular fiction, considered by some to possess those elements
that create a lasting presence in the literary canon.
A critical analysis of Rice's work can be
found in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001).
****
The Vampire Chronicles
She completed her first book, Interview
with the Vampire, in 1973 and published it in 1976. In 1994, Neil Jordan
directed a motion picture by the same Anne Rice, based on the story, but with
some minor changes. A second movie was also made, inspired by the second
and third books in the original Vampire Chronicles series. The title was
that of the third book, Queen of the Damned. Also, a film version of her
adult book Exit to Eden was created, starring Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd.
Interview with the Vampire is also an
example of psychedelic literature, as Rice attributes her inspiration of
Louis' "vampire eyes" experience of heightened awareness, and her morbid
curiosity of the "after-death experience" to her own experiences with
LSD. Rice has said that Claudia, the young girl in the book, was
inspired by her late daughter.
Health
Rice has adult onset diabetes mellitus.
This was discovered when she went into a diabetic coma in December of
1998. Since treating the condition with insulin, she is an advocate for
people to get tested for diabetes. Because of a lifelong battle with her
weight, as well as depression due to the long illness and subsequent
death of her husband, Rice's weight ballooned to 254 pounds. Tired of
dealing with sleep apnea, limited mobility, and other weight-related
problems, she had gastric bypass surgery on January 15, 2003.
On 30 January 2004 Rice announced her plans
to leave New Orleans, to move the suburb of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
She had already put the largest of her three homes in Uptown New Orleans
up for sale, and plans to sell the other two. She cited living alone
since the death of her husband and her son's moving out of state as the
reasons. "Simplifying my life, not owning so much, that's the chief
goal," said Rice. "I'll no longer be a citizen of New Orleans in the
true sense." In spring 2005 Anne Rice moved to Paradise West,
California. Some have speculated that Rice also wished for more privacy
from the constant attentions of her fans, who were known to camp out in
front of her house. Sometimes, up to 200 or more would gather to see her
leave for church on Sundays. She is also very adamant about preventing
any Fan Fiction of her books- on April 7, 2000, she released a statement
on her website that prohibited all fanfiction involving her work. This
caused the removal of thousands of fanfics from the popular
Fanfiction.Net website.
Amazon incident
On September 6, 2004, Rice posted a reply
to a number of negative reviews that had appeared on Amazon.com
regarding Blood Canticle. She titled her reply, "From the Author to the
Some of the Negative Voices Here." The text consisted of the following:
"Seldom do I really answer those who
criticize my work. In fact, the entire development of my career has been
fueled by my ability to ignore denigrating and trivializing criticism as
I realize my dreams and my goals. However there is something compelling
about Amazon's willingness to publish just about anything, and the sheer
outrageous stupidity of many things you've said here that actually
touches my proletarian and Democratic soul. Also I use and enjoy Amazon
and I do read the reviews of other people's books in many fields. In
sum, I believe in what happens here. And so, I speak. First off, let me
say that this is addressed only to some of you, who have posted
outrageously negative comments here, and not to all. You are
interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't
even reading it. You are projecting your own limitations on it. And you
are giving a whole new meaning to the words "wide readership." And you
have strained my Dickensean principles to the max. I'm justifiably proud
of being read by intellectual giants and waitresses in trailer parks,in
fact, I love it, but who in the world are you? Now to the book. Allow me
to point out: nowhere in this text are you told that this is the last of
the chronicles, nowhere are you promised curtain calls or a finale,
nowhere are you told there will be a wrap-up of all the earlier
material. The text tells you exactly what to expect. And it warns you
specifically that if you did not enjoy Memnoch the Devil, you may not
enjoy this book. This book is by and about a hero whom many of you have
already rejected. And he tells you that you are likely to reject him
again. And this book is most certainly written -- every word of it -- by
me. If and when I can't write a book on my own, you'll know about it.
And no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut,
or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and
organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a
status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me,
and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a
virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art. Back to the novel
itself: the character who tells the tale is my Lestat. I was with him
more closely than I have ever been in this novel; his voice was as
powerful for me as I've ever heard it. I experienced break through after
break through as I walked with him, moved with him, saw through his
eyes. What I ask of Lestat, Lestat unfailingly gives. For me, three
hunting scenes, two which take place in hotels -- the lone woman waiting
for the hit man, the slaughter at the pimp's party -- and the late night
foray into the slums --stand with any similar scenes in all of the
chronicles. They can be read aloud without a single hitch. Every word is
in perfect place. The short chapter in which Lestat describes his love
for Rowan Mayfair was for me a totally realized poem. There are other
such scenes in this book. You don't get all this? Fine. But I
experienced an intimacy with the character in those scenes that
shattered all prior restraints, and when one is writing one does have to
continuously and courageously fight a destructive tendency to inhibition
and restraint. Getting really close to the subject matter is the
achievement of only great art. Now, if it doesn't appeal to you, fine.
You don't enjoy it? Read somebody else. But your stupid arrogant
assumptions about me and what I am doing are slander. And you have used
this site as if it were a public urinal to publish falsehood and lies.
I'll never challenge your democratic freedom to do so, and yes, I'm
answering you, but for what it's worth, be assured of the utter contempt
I feel for you, especially those of you who post anonymously (and
perhaps repeatedly?) and how glad I am that this book is the last one in
a series that has invited your hateful and ugly responses. Now, to
return to the narrative in question: Lestat's wanting to be a saint is a
vision larded through and through with his characteristic vanity. It
connects perfectly with his earlier ambitions to be an actor in Paris, a
rock star in the modern age. If you can't see that, you aren't reading
my work. In his conversation with the Pope he makes observations on the
times which are in continuity with his observations on the late
twentieth century in The Vampire Lestat, and in continuity with Marius'
observations in that book and later in Queen of the Damned. The state of
the world has always been an important theme in the chronicles. Lestat's
comments matter. Every word he speaks is part of the achievement of this
book. That Lestat renounced this saintly ambition within a matter of
pages is plain enough for you to see. That he reverts to his old self is
obvious, and that he intends to complete the tale of Blackwood Farm is
also quite clear. There are many other themes and patterns in this work
that I might mention -- the interplay between St.Juan Diago and Lestat,
the invisible creature who doesn't "exist" in the eyes of the world is a
case in point. There is also the theme of the snare of Blackwood Farm,
the place where a human existence becomes so beguiling that Lestat
relinquishes his power as if to a spell. The entire relationship between
Lestat and Uncle Julien is carefully worked out. But I leave it to
readers to discover how this complex and intricate novel establishes
itself within a unique, if not unrivalled series of book. There are
things to be said. And there is pleasure to be had. And readers will say
wonderful things about Blood Canticle and they already are. There are
readers out there and plenty of them who cherish the individuality of
each of the chronicles which you so flippantly condemn. They can and do
talk circles around you. And I am warmed by their response. Their
letters, the papers they write in school, our face to face exchanges on
the road -- these things sustain me when I read the utter trash that you
post. But I feel I have said enough. If this reaches one reader who is
curious about my work and shocked by the ugly reviews here, I've served
my goals. And Yo, you dude, the slang police! Lestat talks like I do. He
always has and he always will. You really wouldn't much like being
around either one of us. And you don't have to be. If any of you want to
say anything about all this by all means Email me at Anneobrienrice @
mac.com. And if you want your money back for the book, send it to 1239
First Street, New Orleans, La, 70130. I'm not a coward about my real
Anne Rice or where I live. And yes, the Chronicles are no more! Thank God!"
This post generated a great deal of
publicity online -- partly because authors rarely post or respond to
reviews on Amazon, and partly because of the tone and nature of her
text. Many previous reviews had criticized the quality of writing in
Blood Canticle as lazy or shoddy; so when Rice replied by posting a
1,200-word paragraph wherein she proudly dismisses the utility of
editors, the incident became fodder for weblogs and Internet sites.
Books
The Vampire Chronicles:
Interview with the Vampire (1976)
The Vampire Lestat (1985)
The Queen of the Damned (1988)
The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
Memnoch The Devil (1995)
The Vampire Armand (1998)
Merrick (2000)
Blood and Gold (2001)
Blackwood Farm (2002)
Blood Canticle (2003)
New Tales of the Vampires: (Other vampire
tales which are not within the main sequence, but in the same fictional
world)
Pandora (1998)
Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
Lives of The Mayfair Witches:
The Witching Hour (1990)
Lasher (1993)
Taltos (1994)
Single Novels by Anne Rice:
The Feast of All Saints (1979)
Cry to Heaven (1982)
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989)
Servant of the Bones (1996)
Violin (1997)
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (due November
2005)
Short Fiction:
October 4th, 1948
Nicholas and Jean
The Master of Rampling Gate (Vampire Story)
Work written under the pseudonym Anne
Rampling:
Exit to Eden (1985)
Belinda (1986)
Erotica written under the pseudonym A. N.
Roquelaure:
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983)
Beauty's Punishment (1984)
Beauty's Release (1985)
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
September 15, 2005
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