Rice, Anne

Rice, Anne (b. Howard Allen O'Brien) (Anne Rampling, A. N. Roquelaure, pen names) (1941–  ) writer; born in New Orleans. Named after her father, she legally changed her name (c. 1947). She studied at Texas Women's University (1959–60), San Francisco State College (B.A. 1964; M.A. 1971), and at the University of California: Berkeley (1969–70). After a variety of jobs, such as waitress, cook, and insurance claims examiner, she began her career as a writer of erotica and vampire novels. Living in New Orleans, she gained a vast cult readership for both her supernatural novels, such as the Vampire Chronicles (1989), a trilogy, and for her sadomasochistic erotica, as in Beauty's Punishment (1984). She also wrote mainstream fiction, using the pen name of Anne Rampling.