On this day in 1941, Vampire Chronicles series author Anne Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rice, one of four sisters, was christened Howard Allen O’Brien, but insisted on being called Anne when she started school. She wrote her first novel at age 7 about aliens coming to Earth. Rice married her high school love, Stan Rice, and the two moved to San Francisco to study creative writing. The couple’s daughter died of leukemia at age 5 and Rice devoted her life to writing and producing her popular, yet critically snubbed novel, Interview with a Vampire.

This Bear’s Paw quilt was made by suspected vampire Mercy Lena Brown in the late 1800’s. That’s right. Mercy “was believed to be a vampire by the townspeople. When Mercy died of consumption, like her mother and sister before her, her brother began to get sick as well. Mercy’s body was exhumed to see if she had blood in her heart, in which case she was a vampire and may be draining her brother of life.” The quilt was documented by its owner in 1992 during the Rhode Island Quilt Documentation Project.

Was Mercy found to be a vampire? View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view.

Source:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/anne-rice-is-born

Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org