Bestselling author Anne Rice, who published her first book “Interview With the Vampire” in 1976, has died at the age of 80 of complications from a stroke, her son, the author Christopher Rice, announced on Facebook. She sold more than 150 million books during her career, including a 13-book series called “The Vampire Chronicles” based on her first novel, and “Queen of the Damned” which, like “Interview With the Vampire” was adapted to film.

She also wrote erotica under pseudonyms Anne Rampling and AN Roquelaure. “The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated,” her son wrote. “As my mother, her support for me was unconditional - she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions.”