Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession

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Alfred A. Knopf, 2008 - Autobiography - 245 pages
An intimate memoir of Anne Rice's Catholic girlhood, her unmaking as a devout believer, and her return to the Church - what she calls a decision of the heart. Moving from her New Orleans childhood in the 1940s and '50s, with all its religious devotions, through how she slowly lost her belief in God, Called Out of Darkness also recounts Anne's years in radical Berkeley, where she wrote Interview with the Vampire (a lament for her lost faith) and where she came to admire the principles of secular humanists. She writes about loss and alienation (her mother's drinking, the deaths of her young daughter and later, her husband); about the birth of her son, Christopher; and about how, after 38 years as an atheist, she once again came to believe in Christ. Anne Rice makes a spiritual confession that is a celebration: a brilliant, subtle exploration of the journey through life that allows one to answer the call out of darkness.

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Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
5
Section 3
31
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Novelist Anne Rice, best known as the creator of the vampire Lestat and his literary cohorts, was born Howard Allen O'Brien on October 4, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1959 Anne began classes at Texas Woman's College in Denton. She transferred to San Francisco State University, and earned her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Creative Writing in 1964. She pubhlished her first short story in 1965 called "October 4, 1948." She began grad school at San Francisco State in 1966, and began writing "Interview With the Vampire" in 1969. Anne earned her Master's in 1972. In 1973 Anne turned the "Interview With the Vampire" into a novel in a five week period. It was rejected when she submitted it, but in 1974, while attending a Writer's Conference in Squaw Valley, Anne met agent an agent, who agreed to represent her. "Interview" was subsequently sold to Vicky Wilson at Knopf. In 1976 "Interview With the Vampire" was published, the film rights sold to Paramount for $150,000.00, with a ten year option. Anne goes on to write various series in the same genre, such as the rest of the "Vampire Chronicles," the "Mayfair Witches" books and two series under pen names. In addition to her novels, Rice has written poetry and chaired the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.

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