Stieg Larsson Biography
Swedish author Stieg Larsson's life is every bit as fascinating as that of
any fictional character. Mikael Blomkvist, the protagonist of The Millenium
Series, in fact bears many similarities to his creator.
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson was born on August 15, 1954 in Västerbotten, in
northern Sweden. He was raised in the countryside by his grandparents until his
grandfather's death in 1962 (despite considerable research, including questions
to his publisher, that is all we have been able to glean of his childhood).
After performing his mandatory two-year military service, Larsson traveled
widely in Africa, witnessing the civil war in Eritrea first-hand. On his return
to Sweden in 1977, he worked for
Tidningarnas Telegrambyra (TT), the largest Swedish news agency. He was employed at TT for most of his adult life as a
journalist, feature writer and graphics artist.
One of his many passions was science fiction. He was the co-editor of several
fanzines, including Sfären, Fijagh! Additionally, he was president
of the largest Swedish sci-fi fan club, Skandinavisk förening för science
fiction (SFSF), from 1978 – 1979.
Until the posthumous publication of his books,
Larsson was best known as a political activist and journalist. He
never officially joined the Communist party in Sweden, but he was a strong
advocate for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers
League). He also edited the Swedish Trotskite journal Fjärde internationalen.
He was devoted to fighting racism and totalitarianism, and became instrumental
in documenting and exposing organizations advocating these and other far-right
philosophies. He initiated the Swedish Expo foundation (a sister-society to the
British Searchlight foundation) dedicated to countering nationalist, racist,
anti-democracy and anti-Semitic groups.
Larsson was widely admired for his stance against extremist groups. He
received many death threats over the years, and those close to him were
seriously concerned for his life. When he died in 2004, many conspiracy
theorists speculated that what was deemed a massive heart attack was, in fact,
murder. (Given the fact that the man smoked over 60 cigarettes a day and led a
relatively unhealthy lifestyle, however, the official cause of death seems
likely.)
The Millennium Series was nearly complete before Larsson showed the first
two books to a publisher shortly before his death. Almost eight million copies
of the books have been sold since the first was published in 2005, including 2.7 million
copies in
Sweden (almost one for every three Swedes in a country of nine million
people). A total of 32 countries have bought the rights to the trilogy, and all
three books have film adaptations in the works.
The initial entry in the series, Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men Who Hate
Women"), was awarded the prestigious Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime
novel in 2005. It was published in the UK in early 2008 as The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo, and in the USA in September 2008. The movie version is due out in Nordic countries in 2009, starring
Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist and Noomi Noren (aka Noomi Rapace) as Lisbeth
Salander.
The second book in the trilogy, Flickan som lekte med elden ("The Girl
Who Played with Fire"), won the Swedish Crime Fiction Academy Award as the
year's best Swedish crime novel of 2006. It was published in English in 2009. The final volume, Luftslottet som sprängdes ("The Aircastle that Blew Up"), was published in English in May 2010 as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
This biography was last updated on 04/26/2010.
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