Legendary Author Anne Rice Passes at Age 80

New Orleans native Anne Rice, passed away in Rancho Mirage this last weekend at age 80 due to complications from a stroke. Her passing was announced by her son Christopher Rice, a successful author in his own right, via social media. Anne had spent many years in California, first in San Francisco in her early 20s through her late 40s, and then later that year to Ranch Mirage.

Her collective works defied categorization and included gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her serialized novels, collectively referred to as The Vampire Chronicles. Two of these novels were made into films. She is responsible for the popularization of a contingent of books, films, and television series by other authors which focused on the glamorous and often deadly lives of vampires and other creatures of the night. This could be said to include The Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood), the Twilight series, The Vampire Diaries, and the House of Night series among others.

The prolific author wrote over 25 books, with a few co-written with her son Christopher. The New York Times Literary Critic Susan Ferraro said of Rice, “[She] turns vampire conventions inside out. Because Rice identifies with the vampire instead of the victim (reversing the usual focus), the horror for the reader springs from the realization of the monster within the self. Moreover, Rice's vampires are loquacious philosophers who spend much of eternity debating the nature of good and evil." [1]

Throughout her life Rice vacillated between agnosticism and devout Catholicism. In later years she identified as a secular humanist, with a profound love of Christ and his teachings, which she implied did not need to be mediated by a particular church or dogma. She will be interred in a family Mausoleum in New Orleans in 2022.

Check out one of Anne Rice’s books by reserving a copy with your library card from the Library’s online catalog or our Link+ service if the title you want is not available from our collection.

[1] Ferraro, Susan (1990, October 14). Novels you can sink your teeth into. The New York Times Magazine.