Rice, Anne

(US, 1941– )

Born in New Orleans, Rice is best known for her enormously successful Vampire Chronicles. The first, Interview with the Vampire (1976), is the story of a guilt-ridden vampire's 300-year history focused on his time with Lestat, an undead libertine whose thirst for sensation is matched only by his thirst for blood. The novel was followed by six further instalments, including The Vampire Lestat (1985) and The Queen of the Damned (1988). Lushly descriptive, and often incorporating events from Rice's own life, such as fears of alcoholism and the deaths of her mother and daughter, Rice's Chronicles are authentic Gothic novels reinvented in a popular form. Rice has also written a series known as the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, which includes The Witching Hour (1990), and under the pseudonyms Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure.

Bram Stoker, Stephen King  WB