Editing Interview with the Vampire (section)

== Background and publication ==
In 1970, while [[Anne Rice]] was attending a graduate program in Creative Writing at [[San Francisco State University]], her daughter Michelle, then about four years old, was diagnosed with acute [[granulocytic leukemia]].<ref name="people.com">[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20100681,00.html "Anne Rice's Imagination May Roam Among Vampires and Erotica, but Her Heart Is Right at Home"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110330123938/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20100681,00.html |date=March 30, 2011 }} by Joyce Wadler, Johnny Greene, ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'', May 12, 1988.</ref> Michelle died of the illness about two years later,<ref name="people.com"/><ref>[http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d15d15e4-ede9-11df-8616-00144feab49a.html "Small talk: Anne Rice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515023432/http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d15d15e4-ede9-11df-8616-00144feab49a.html |date=May 15, 2012 }}" Anna Metcalfe, ''[[Financial Times]]'' (London), November 15, 2010</ref><ref>Ramsland 1991, pp. 112–113</ref> and Rice fell into a deep depression, turning to alcohol in order to cope.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Anne_Rice.aspx|title=Anne Rice|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography|year=2004|access-date=March 20, 2013|archive-date=June 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610231101/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Anne_Rice.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> Later reviewers and commentators identified Michelle as an inspiration for the character of Claudia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Anne Rice: interview with the vampire writer|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3562792/Anne-Rice-interview-with-the-vampire-writer.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3562792/Anne-Rice-interview-with-the-vampire-writer.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|last=Husband|first=Stuart|date=November 2, 2008|access-date=March 6, 2013|work=The Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1973, while still grieving the loss of her daughter, Rice began reworking a previously written short story, which she had written in 1968 or 1969.{{#tag:ref|Biographer [[Katherine Ramsland]] gives two dates for the short story: 1968 in the text,<ref name="Ramsland">{{cite book|title=Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice|author=Ramsland, Katherine|author-link=Katherine Ramsland|year=1991|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|location=New York|isbn=978-0-525-93370-0|oclc=23733745|pages=[https://archive.org/details/prismofnightbi00rams/page/140 140–151]|url=https://archive.org/details/prismofnightbi00rams/page/140}}</ref> and 1969 in her timeline of Rice's life.<ref name="Ramsland timeline"/> Michael Riley's timeline lists the year as 1969.<ref>{{cite book|title=Conversations with Anne Rice: An Intimate, Enlightening Portrait of Her Life And Work|author=Riley, Michael|year=1996|location=New York|publisher=[[Ballantine Books]]|page=xv|isbn=978-0-345-39636-5|oclc=34562839}}</ref>|group="nb"}} Thirty pages long, the short story was written from the interviewer's perspective.<ref name="Ramsland"/> She decided to expand "Interview with the Vampire" into a novel at the encouragement of one of her husband's students, who enjoyed her writing.<ref name="Ramsland"/><ref name="Ramsland timeline">{{cite book|title=Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice|author=Ramsland, Katherine|author-link=Katherine Ramsland|year=1991|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|location=New York|isbn=978-0-525-93370-0|oclc=23733745|page=[https://archive.org/details/prismofnightbi00rams/page/355 355]|url=https://archive.org/details/prismofnightbi00rams/page/355}}</ref> It took her five weeks to complete the 338-page novel: she did research on vampires during the day and often wrote during the night.<ref name="Ramsland"/>

After completing the novel and following many rejections from publishers, Rice developed [[obsessive–compulsive disorder]] (OCD). She became obsessed with germs, thinking that she contaminated everything she touched, engaged in frequent and obsessive hand washing and obsessively checked locks on windows and doors. Of this period, Rice says: "What you see when you're in that state is every single flaw in our hygiene and you cannot control it and you go crazy".<ref>Ramsland 1991, pp. 157–158</ref>

In August 1974, Rice attended the [[Squaw Valley Writer's Conference]] at [[Squaw Valley, Placer County, California|Squaw Valley]], conducted by writer [[Ray Nelson (author)|Ray Nelson]].<ref>"Richard Lupoff's Book Week", ''Algol'' 17, 1977, p. 29.</ref> While at the conference, she met her future literary agent, Phyllis Seidel. In October 1974, Seidel sold the publishing rights to ''Interview with the Vampire'' to [[Alfred A. Knopf]] for a $12,000 advance of the hardcover rights, at a time when most new authors were receiving $2,000 advances.<ref>Ramsland 1991, pp. 159–160</ref> ''Interview with the Vampire'' was published in April 1976.<ref name="ISBN Search">{{cite web|title=Interview with the Vampire|url=http://isbnsearch.org/isbn/0394498216}}</ref> In 1977, the Rices traveled to both Europe and Egypt for the first time.<ref name="Bio Channel">{{cite web|title=Anne Rice Biography|url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/anne-rice.html|work=thebiographychannel.co.uk|publisher=AETN UK|access-date=June 22, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510182154/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/anne-rice.html|archive-date=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

Upon its release, ''Interview with the Vampire'' received mixed reviews from critics.<ref name=Ferraro>{{cite news|last=Ferraro|first=Susan|title=Novels You Can Sink Your Teeth Into|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/14/magazine/novels-you-can-sink-your-teeth-into.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|work=The New York Times Magazine|date=October 14, 1990|access-date=March 5, 2013|archive-date=December 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213145948/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/14/magazine/novels-you-can-sink-your-teeth-into.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|url-status=live}}</ref> A reviewer for the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' gave the book a positive review, describing the prose as "hypnotically poetic in tone, rich in sensory imagery",<ref name="Ferraro" /> while other reviews were more negative. Edith Milton of ''[[The New Republic]]'' wrote: "To pretend that it has any purpose beyond suckling eroticism is rank hypocrisy".<ref name="Ferraro" /> [[Leo Braudy]] writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'' said: "[...] the book is too superficial, too impersonal and too obviously made, to touch the sources of real terror and feeling."<ref name="NYT">{{cite web |author1=[[Leo Braudy]] |title=Queer monsters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/02/archives/queer-monsters-interview-with-the-vampire-vampire.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |publisher=[[The New York Times Company]] |access-date=December 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023232211/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/02/archives/queer-monsters-interview-with-the-vampire-vampire.html |archive-date=October 23, 2020 |date=May 2, 1976 |url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of|2008|February}}, the novel had sold 8&nbsp;million copies worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://current.com/items/88854124_anne-rice-and-jesus-save-lestat-but-can-vampires-accept-christ-into-their-undead-lives.htm |title=Anne Rice And Jesus Save Lestat: But Can Vampires Accept Christ into Their Undead Lives? // Current TV |publisher=Current.com |access-date=December 17, 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708071055/http://current.com/items/88854124_anne-rice-and-jesus-save-lestat-but-can-vampires-accept-christ-into-their-undead-lives.htm |archive-date=July 8, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The book spawned a total of twelve sequels, collectively known as ''[[The Vampire Chronicles]]'', and the spin-off series ''[[New Tales of the Vampires]]''. The first sequel, ''[[The Vampire Lestat]]'', was published in 1985 and sold more than 75,000 copies in its first printing, garnering largely favorable reviews.<ref name="Ferraro" /> 1988's ''[[The Queen of the Damned]]'' improved on ''Lestat''{{'s}} numbers, receiving an initial hardcover run of 405,000 and topping the [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Best Seller list]].<ref name="Ferraro" /> Rice's vampire books [[Shared universe|share]] a fictional universe with her series ''[[Lives of the Mayfair Witches]]'' and the novel ''[[The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=H.|first=V.|year=1995|title=Anne Rice in the Academy|journal=Science Fiction Studies|volume=22|issue=1|pages=129–130|jstor=4240407}}</ref>