Flashback: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976)
Penguin Random House / Photo: © Michael Lionstar
The debut novel from Anne Rice, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE revolves around vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who recounts the story of his life to a reporter. The novel started life as a 30-page story, written in the late 1960s following the death of Rice's young daughter, Michelle. (Literary critics believe that Michelle served as an inspiration for the child-vampire character Claudia.)
In the early 1970s, Rice expanded the story into a novel. In 1974, literary agent Phyllis Seidel sold the publishing rights to INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE to Alfred A. Knopf for a $12,000 advance for the hardcover rights.
The book kicked off The Vampire Chronicles and the spin-off series New Tales of the Vampires. It also crossed over into the Mayfair Witches series.
A film adaptation was released in 1994 starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. The novel has also been adapted as a comic book. There was also the short-lived 2005 Broadway musical Lestat, with a score by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and book by Linda Woolverton. AMC has acquired the television rights to the books to create multiple series set in the same universe (as the books are).
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