Anne Rice

Lestat de Lioncourt - does anyone yet know him? Lestat, tall, blond, seductive, magical and quite deadly. The main protagonist of the "Chronicle of the Vampires" fascinates anyone who likes to hang around in the world of vampires from time to time and was inspired by Anne Rice. Her own life served as inspiration in the design of the characters. So she leaned Lestats appearance on that of her husband Stan and for the pretty vampire girl Claudia served her own little daughter, who tragically died at the age of five years of leukemia, as a template.
Anne was born on October 4, 1941 in New Orleans as "Howard Allen O'Brien". She is the daughter of Irish immigrants and was given her father's first name and her mother's maiden name as her middle name, as her mother believed that a male first name could be beneficial for a girl ... However, she was allowed to enroll in a Catholic girls' school choose a new name and she chose as a six-year-old the name "Anne”.
In 1961 Anne married the poet Stan Rice and got two children with him. Her daughter Michele was born in 1966 and died far too young with only five years of leukemia. Her son Christopher never met his big sister, he was born in 1978 and, like his mother and one of his aunts, also became a writer. In 1976 Anne Rice's first book "Interview with the Vampire", in which she tells of the vampire child Claudia, among other things, that can never grow up. In this novel, she processed the early death of her little daughter.
The book was a great success that later was even filmed with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas and so she decided to write more vampire novels. In the next book, she introduces the vampire Lestat personally to us in detail. We learn his story and his life before he became immortal. After four books, she originally wanted to end the series, but more should follow. The vampire chronicle now includes 12 books. But she does not write exclusively about vampires. There are also books on the "Mayfair Witches, the" Jesus Christ Series "," Songs Of The Seraphim "," The Wolf Chronicles "and various single novels and short stories. But her most famous character is still Lestat, the tall blond vampire who was even sung for a short time in a musical by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Unfortunately, the audience did not like the musical either in San Francisco or on Broadway in New York. It was discontinued after only four weeks.
The safest way to encounter Lestat is to open one of the many books in which he appears. With him, Anne Rice has given us a great and multi-layered vampire and it's fun to be in the world Anne Rice created for him. Should it someday be too gloomy, you can simply close the book again……

Text: Nadja von der Hocht

Foto: Anne Rice [Public domain]