Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson (August 15 1954 - November 9 2004) was a Swedish journalist and writer. He was born in Skelleftehamn, Sweden as Karl Stig-Erland Larsson.

Stieg 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 Trotskite journal Fjärde 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 sf fan club, Skandinavisk förening för science fiction (SFSF).

In 1981, Larsson went to work for the largest Swedish news agency, TT. His political convictions as well as his journalistic experiences led him to initiate the Swedish Expo foundation, similar to the British Searchlight Foundation and set up to expose racist and totalitarian organizations and tendencies; he also became the editor of the foundation's magazine Expo. Larsson quickly became instrumental in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organisations; was an influential debater, lecturer and leading expert, and lived for years under more or less serious death threats from political enemies. When he died at the age of 50, Larsson left three unpublished thrillers which have all been published posthumously. These novels are all bestsellers in Sweden and in many other countries. His first novel Män som hatar kvinnor (published in English in January 2008 as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) was awarded the prestigious Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005; his second, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played With Fire), received the Swedish Crime Fiction Academy Award as the year's best Swedish crime novel of 2006. Several films are in the works from Yellow Bird Films in Ystad, Sweden.

He died in Stockholm of a massive heart attack, in 2004. In 2008, the 1977 testament of Larsson was found in which he declares his wish to donate all his money to the Umeå branch of the Communist Workers League (today called Socialistiska Partiet). His father and brother said that there were no witnesses to the will, so it is not valid and all of Larsson's money and future income from book sales should still go to them.[1] [2]

Bibliography

Collection of 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

Novels

The Millennium series (all titles by April, 2008, under contract in more than 25 countries):

• Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), 2005. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, January 2008
• Flickan som lekte med elden ("The girl who played with fire"), 2006. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The girl who played with fire, January 2009
• Luftslottet som sprängdes ("The air castle that blew up"), 2007

Periodicals

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

External links

• Stieg Larsson's bibliography (english)
• Dutch fansite with covers and more (dutch)