Anne Rice
Anne Rice, born October 4, 1941 as Howard Allen O’Brien, is one of America's most celebrated authors. Her many books cover history, belief, philosophy and religion. She became famous for writing highly literate vampire novels and was labeled a Goth superstar.
Contents
Life
She was raised by devoutly Catholic parents and she attended Catholic grade schools in New Orleans until her mother died. The family then moved to Texas. She married her childhood sweetheart, Stan Rice and moved to California. Both attended and graduated from San Francisco State University. In 1972, Stan and Anne lost their daughter, Michele, to adult leukemia just before her fifth birthday. Her husband Stan was a renowned poet and a painter earning multiple accolades. Stan died in 2002 of cancer.
Faith
She questioned her faith as a young person and became an atheist for 38 years before returning back to Catholicism. Stan was also an atheist.
In the 1990s, Rice found herself being pulled back to God. For her, atheism had not been a true expression of logic and reason but an emptiness, even a torment.
"It’s a more strenuous path than the religious path, because you’re then going to say that there is no God, there is no reason (for anything), that people on Earth are the only (way) to provide any meaning. That’s a rough road to travel.
"When you lose a child, you're telling yourself as an atheist, 'I'm never going to see that child again in any form.' That's a hell of a lot harder than a religion, which gives you the consolation that you will see that child again in heaven. It’s hard being an atheist. It’s tough."[1]
Public clashes with fans
Rice has also become known for her direct and blunt interaction with the fandom.
Amazon.com review
When reviewers on shopping site Amazon.com gave her book "Blood Canticle" bad reviews in September 2004, Anne Rice herself left a lengthy comment defending the book and claiming (among other things) that the authors of the negative reviews "are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective".
The comment and the replies to it were later pulled from the site, to the surprise of both the fans and Rice herself.[2] However, copies of the review have spread across the Internet.[3]
Author Neil Gaiman commented on the issue on his blog:[4]
| “ | I think that unless a reviewer gets their facts completely wrong, the author should shut up (and even then, the author should probably let it go -- although I'm a big fan of a letter that James Branch Cabell wrote to the New York Times pointing out that their review of FIGURES OF EARTH was bollocks*). As Kingsley Amis said, a bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldn't let it spoil your lunch. [...] I think Anne Rice going on Amazon and lambasting her critics was undoubtedly a very brave and satisfying thing for her to do, was every bit as sensible as kicking a tar baby, and, if ever I do something like that, please shoot me. |
” |
Opposition to fan works
Rice is one of the few authors who explicitly oppose fan fiction about her Vampire Chronicles. She has left a message[5] on her website, saying:
| “ | IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON "FAN FICTION"
Anne has posted the following message regarding fan fiction: "I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes." |
” |
Popular fan fiction site FanFiction.net received a Cease & Desist notice, after which the site removed all Anne Rice fan fiction.[6]
Books
This is a list of some books written by Anne Rice:
- Interview With The Vampire
- The Feast of All Saints
- Cry to Heaven
- The Vampire Lestat
- The Queen of the Damned
- The Mummy
- The Witching Hour
- The Tale of the Body Thief
- Lasher
- Taltos
- Memnoch The Devil
- Servant of the Bones
- Violin
- Pandora
- The Vampire Armand
- Vittorio the Vampire
- Merrick
- Blood and Gold
- Blackwood Farm
- Blood Canticle
- Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
- Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
- Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession (autobiographical)
