Anne Rice, the bestselling author known for a series of gothic novels that reimagined the lives of vampires, has died at 80.

Her death was announced on Facebook by her son, the novelist Christopher Rice, and in a news release by her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

Anne Rice was born in New Orleans and educated in California. She made her literary debut in 1976 with the novel Interview With the Vampire, which introduced readers to the undead characters Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt; they would return in several more books in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series.

 

Rice’s vampire novels were huge bestsellers, and Interview With the Vampire spawned a hit 1994 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. An AMC series based on the novel will premiere next year.

In recent years, she collaborated with son Christopher on the novel Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. A follow-up to that book, Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris, is slated for publication on Feb. 1, 2022.

Rice’s admirers paid tribute to her on social media. On Twitter, author Amina Akhtar wrote, “Growing up as a very sheltered teen, Anne Rice’s books were a whole new incredible world. She opened my eyes to what’s possible in writing. RIP to a legend.”

And journalist Zoah Hedges-Stocks tweeted, “Anne Rice invented vampire fiction as we know it. Buffy, Twilight, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, THE ENTIRE GENRE OF PARANORMAL ROMANCE: they were all standing on Anne's shoulders.”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.