 Hi, I'm Nix Mendy, the Archival Processing Associate with Tulane University Special Collections, which is a division of Tulane University Libraries, and I'm thrilled to share the newly-opened Anne Rice Collection with you. The Anne Rice Collection documents the professional development of three related authors, Anne Rice, the novelist, her husband Stan Rice, the poet, painter, and former professor, and her sister Alice Borschart, the novelist. These archival materials contain hundreds of hand-written and typed script drafts of their novels and poetry, alongside professional correspondence with their publishers. But there are also early and unfinished works, hundreds of drawings, paintings, and collages, dozens of adaptations, drafting notes and diary entries, audio recordings of interviews and public readings, personal correspondence and records, and records of businesses that respond from their creative endeavors. Rice's collection highlights the symbiotic and fruitful creative relationships with her family, where ideas were sustained, nurtured, and brought to life in a variety of mediums. This creative environment laid the groundwork for one of Rice's most enduring relationships, that is, her engagement with her international fan base, letters and several attached pieces of artwork, photography, recorded music, personal items, graduate theses, and even hair flew into Rice's mailbox. At least five assistants were charged with sorting, assessing, and answering these 20 boxes worth of correspondence, which extend from the 1980s through the early 2000s. Fans often requested membership into the Vampire Lestat Band Club, casting contacts in her movies and physical copies of her newsletter, Commotion Strange. There are inquiries about the trajectory of her novels, the prospects of seeing her characters on screen, and future creative plans fueled the newsletter's publication for years. In the mid-1990s, she switched to answering questions on her website and threw a pre-recorded phone line, with a handful of the original tapes retained in the collection. But the physical letters continued to pour in from around the globe, which is a testament to the eternal dedication of her audience. If you'd like to learn more about the collection, you can visit the Digital Finding Aid or email specialcollections at specialcollections at tulane.edu. Thank you.