Christopher Rice, Rice's son, announced that Rice had died on Saturday night from complications following a stroke.
Christopher Rice, a writer, wrote that "She taught me to defy genre borders and surrender to obsessive passionates" "In her final hours I sat beside the hospital bed in awe at her achievements and her courage."
Rice's 1976 novel, "Interview with the Vampire", was later adapted by Rice into the 1994 movie directed and starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. It will also be adapt in an AMC+ TV series that premieres next year.
"Interview with the Vampire," where Daniel Molloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac about Rice's first novel, was Rice’s first novel. However, over the next 50 years, Rice would write more than 30 novels and sell more that 150 million copies. 13 of these were part of her 1976 debut, the "Vampire Chronicles". Rice introduced romance, feminine sexuality, and queerness long before "Twilight", or "True Blood" -- many saw "Interview With the Vampire", as an allegory of homosexuality, to the supernatural genre.
Rice said that she wrote novels about people who are "shut out" of life because of different reasons in her 2008 memoir, "Called Out of Darkness, A Spiritual Confession" (2008 memoir). Rice was born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien on January 31, 1941. She was raised in New Orleans where many of her novels were set. Her father was a postal worker, but he also made sculptures and wrote fiction. Alice Borchardt was her older sister and also wrote horror and fantasy fiction. Rice's mother passed away when Rice was 15 years old.
Rice was raised in an Irish Catholic home and initially pictured herself as a priest or nun. Rice frequently wrote about her spiritual journey. She declared that she no longer believed in Christianity in 2010, saying, "I refuse to believe in anti-gay." I refuse to be antifeminist. I will not be against artificial birth control."
"I believed that differences and quarrels among Christians did not matter to the individual. I just wanted to live my life and keep out of it. Rice said that he realized it was not an easy task. "I realized that I would lose my mind if I didn’t make this declaration."
Rice was married to Stan Rice in 1961. Rice and Stan lived in Haight-Ashbury, 1960s San Francisco. Rice called herself a "square" and she wrote at San Francisco State University. They had two children together: Christopher and Michelle. Michelle died from leukemia in 1972 at the age of 5.
Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" was written while she was grieving Michelle's passing. It turned one of her short stories into an entire book. Rice traces her fascination with vampires to the 1934 film "Dracula's Daughter", which she first saw as a child.
Rice stated to the Daily Beast that he "never forgot" about the film in 2016. "That was always what I thought vampires were, earthlings with heightened senses and a doomed appreciation for life.
Rice initially had difficulty getting the book published. However, "Interview With a Vampire", especially in paperback, was a huge success. Rice didn't immediately expand the story. She followed it up with a pair historical novels and three erotic books, all written under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure. In 1985 she published "The Vampire Lestat", a story about her "Interview With a Vampire". This was the first of a series that she would continue to publish, right up to 2018's "Blood Communion - A Tale of Prince Lestat".
Some critics only saw cheap eroticism in Rice's "Vampire Chronicles". Others, including millions of readers, saw the most important interpretation of vampires since Bram Stoker.
Let me tell you why these books were so popular. Rice's memoir reveals that Rice was the one who wrote them. Her auditory and visual experiences were key to their prose. I am terrible at reading. My mind is filled with these visual and auditory lessons, and I write five times faster than what I read.
Victoria Wilson, Rice's long-time editor, described her as a "fierce storyteller who wrote big, lived quietly, imagined worlds on an enormous scale"
Wilson stated that Wilson "evoked the emotions of an age long before they existed," in a statement. Wilson said that Wilson was a prolific writer who was decades ahead her time.
Her family confirmed that Rice will be buried in a private ceremony at a New Orleans family mausoleum. New Orleans will host a public celebration next year. "Ramses the Damned, The Reign of Osiris," which Rice co-authored with Christopher, will be published in February.
