WASHINGTON (AFP) - Anne Rice, the gothic novelist best known for writing Interview With The Vampire, died on Saturday (Dec 11) aged 80, her family said.

       "In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage," her son Christopher Rice said in a post on her Facebook page.

       He said she died of complications from a stroke.

       Interview With The Vampire, published in 1976, was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in 1994.

       She wrote dozens of books, many of them in the "Vampire" series, selling more than 150 million worldwide.

       Another of her works, The Queen Of The Damned, was adapted into a film in 2002.

       "The immensity of our family's grief cannot be overstated. 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," her son wrote.

       "As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions."

       She will be interred at a private ceremony in New Orleans, the statement said.

       A public celebration will be held next year in the city, with "friends, readers and fans" invited, her son added.

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