Stieg Larsson

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Stieg Larsson
Born 15 August 1954(1954-08-15)
Skelleftehamn, Sweden
Died 9 November 2004 (aged 50)
Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation Journalist, Novelist
Nationality Swedish
Genres Crime fiction, Thriller
Notable work(s) Millennium Trilogy
Official website

Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for his authorship of the Millennium Trilogy of crime novels which are being published posthumously.

During 2008, he was the second-best selling author in the world, behind Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini.[1]

Contents

[edit] Life and career

[edit] Activist and journalist

Larsson was initially a political activist for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers League), a photographer, and one of Sweden's leading science fiction fans. In politics he was the editor of the Swedish Trotskyist journal Fjärde internationalen. He also wrote regularly for the weekly Internationalen. As a science fiction fan, he was co-editor or editor of several fanzines, including Sfären, Fijagh! and others; in 1978-1979 he was president of the largest Swedish science fiction fan club, Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction (SFSF). He worked as a graphic designer at the largest Swedish news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) between 1977 and 1999.[2]

Larsson's political convictions, as well as his journalistic experiences, led him to found the Swedish Expo Foundation, similar to the British Searchlight Foundation, established to "counteract the growth of the extreme right and the white power-culture in schools and among young people."[3] he also became the editor of the foundation's magazine, Expo. Larsson quickly became instrumental in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organizations; he was an influential debater and lecturer on the subject, reportedly living for years under death threats from his political enemies.[4]

[edit] Death

Larsson died in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a massive myocardial infarction. Rumours that his death was in some way suspicious, because of death threats received as editor of Expo, have been denied.[5]

In May 2008 it was announced that Larsson's 1977 will, found soon after his death, declared his wish to leave his assets to the Umeå branch of the Communist Workers League (now the Socialist Party). As the will was unwitnessed, it was not valid under Swedish law, with the result that all of Larsson's estate, including future royalties from book sales, went to his father and brother.[6][7] His long term partner Eva Gabrielsson,[8] who found his will, has no legal right to the inheritance, sparking controversy and exposing what many media considered a flaw in Swedish inheritance legislation.[citation needed] They never married because Swedish Law required married couples to make their addresses publicly available; marrying would have been a security risk.[9] At the 2009 Galaxy Book Awards, Larsson won the award for The Books Direct Crime Thriller of The Year, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

[edit] The novelist

At his death, Larsson left the manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. The first of these novels was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the prestigious Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005. His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006. He also left the unfinished manuscript of the fourth novel, and synopses of the fifth and sixth in the series, which was intended to contain an eventual total of ten books.

The primary characters in the Millennium Trilogy series are Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Lisbeth is an intelligent, eccentric woman in her 20s with a photographic memory whose social skills are rather poor. Blomkvist is an investigative journalist, a celebrity in his own right.

A television series based on the three completed books is in production by Yellow Bird Films of Ystad. Each book will be covered in two episodes (making a total of six 90-minute episodes). The first two episodes were released as a motion picture in February 2009, while the subsequent episodes will be released directly on DVD in December 2009. The series will be broadcast on Swedish television in 2010.[10]

[edit] Influences

Through his written works as well as to the press, Larsson openly admitted that a significant amount of his literary influences come in the form of American and British crime/detective fiction authors. In his work, he makes a habit of inserting the names of some of his favourites within the text - sometimes by making his characters read the books of his own influences. Topping the list are Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers and Enid Blyton.[11] However, one of the strongest influences originates from his own country - Pippi Longstocking by Sweden's much-loved children's author, Astrid Lindgren. Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually based on Pippi Longstocking and in his books is reimagined as a grown up version of her.[12]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Articles

  • Stieg Larsson, Anna-Lena Lodenius: "Extremhögern", Stockholm, 1991
  • Stieg Larsson, Mikael Ekman: "Sverigedemokraterna: den nationella rörelsen", Stockholm, 2001
  • Stieg Larsson, Cecilia Englund: "Debatten om hedersmord: feminism eller rasism", Stockholm, 2004
  • Richard Slätt, Maria Blomquist, Stieg Larsson, David Lagerlöf m.fl.: "Sverigedemokraterna från insidan", 2004

[edit] Novels

The Millennium series:

[edit] Periodicals edited

  • Svartvitt med Expo, 1999-2002
  • Expo, 2002-2004

[edit] Awards

  • 2009 - General Council of the Judiciary, Spain, for his contribution to the fight against domestic violence. [14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Bestselling fiction authors in the world for 2008". AbeBooks. 2009-01-15. http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/15/bestselling-fiction-authors-in-the-world-for-2008/. Retrieved 2009-09-22. 
  2. ^ http://www.stieglarsson.com/Life-and-work
  3. ^ http://expo.se/about-expo.html
  4. ^ http://expo.se/about-expo.html
  5. ^ Forshaw, Barry. (23 August 2008). "Crime writer taken too soon". The Times (London).
  6. ^ SvD. (28 May 2008). Stieg Larssons testamente hittat.[1]
  7. ^ Cantwell, Oisin. (28 May 2008). Ville ge arvet till lokalparti. Aftonbladet.[2]
  8. ^ http://www.supporteva.com/us/ Website supporting Eva Gabrielsson's position.
  9. ^ Nick Cohen "Read Stieg Larsson, the bestselling socialist militant", The Observer, 13 September 2009
  10. ^ Kerstin Larsson. "Mångmiljonär efter sin död", Aftonbladet 14 januari 2007, s. 18-19.[3]
  11. ^ http://www.infloox.com/person?id=83bfe892
  12. ^ http://www.infloox.com/influence?id=7a98a2e4
  13. ^ Allen, Katie (2008-10-06). "Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards". theBookseller.com. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
  14. ^ [4].

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54127,news,injustice-mars-the-publication-of-stieg-larssons-final-book-in-the-millennium-trilogy

[edit] External links


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The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
Novels
Films
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