A different kind of immortality…
Today we learned the sad news that Anne Rice died yesterday, Saturday, December 11, 2021, at the age of 80. There’s a touching announcement in the New York Times, now updated to a full obituary.
Although she wrote over 30 novels, for us here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library, as we’re sure it is for many fans, Anne Rice meant The Vampire Chronicles trilogy – Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned. Independently acquired in the late 80s, our May 1977 first Canadian printing boxed sets continue to be treasured parts of our collection.
The Butterflies & Aliens South 1977 boxed set of The Vampire Chronicles.
The Butterflies & Aliens North 1977 boxed set of The Vampire Chronicles, alongside the 1990 hardcover re-release.
For our Butterfly-in-Chief, she bought this boxed set in the late 80’s and binged the initial trilogy: “It was my first introduction as a teen to the concept that two men could love each passionately and it was beautiful.”
For our Head Alien, The Vampire Lestat holds the distinction of being the only book that has ever caused him to yell out loud at the end: “I brought just the second book on a ski trip as my ‘emergency book.’ Started reading it before bed, could not stop, and woke up everyone in the middle of the night yelling ‘NOOOOO oh my god oh my god oh my god why didn’t I bring the third book!’”
The 1990 hardcover boxed set (pictured above) also has a strange tie to life and death, having been acquired by our Head Alien on a trip to San Francisco for a family wedding, during which time his grandmother died, also of a stroke. He wandered into a bookstore for a bit of a reprieve and found the set, newly released.
No surprise, these books played a key part in cementing the connection, both literary and in friendship, that has grown into this library, up with the likes of Dune and Ray Bradbury.
And since our first introduction to Anne, we’ve gone on and acquired a few more of her works…
The Butterflies & Aliens South Anne Rice Collection.
The Butterflies & Aliens North Anne Rice Collection.
With their themes of immortality and family and legacy, Anne Rice’s books will be a bittersweet reread over the coming days and years. But it will be one way we can all rest assured that, like her vampires and her mummies, she will live on, in her own way.
Rest in peace, Anne.
– Stacey & Winston