Stieg Larsson Obituary (August 1954 – November 2004)
Stieg Larsson was a Swedish born novelist and journalist born in Skelleftehamn near Skelleftea. His best-known work is the Millennium trilogy of crime novels published after his death. Although he died in 2004 Larson was the second best-selling author worldwide in 2008, just behind Khaled Hosseini.
As of March 2010 his Millennium series sold over 27 million copies in over 40 countries around the world. Larsson was only 50 when he died of a heart attack. His famous Millennium trilogy was published posthumously. When Larsson was born his parents were too young to keep him so he was raised by his grandparents in the north of Sweden. His grandfather ended up becoming his major role model. During the second world war he was imprisoned in a work camp where he obviously developed strong anti-Nazi, anti-fascist opinions. Had he been born a Dane there’s a good chance that he may have ended up in a German concentration camp. It’s this past that help shape Larsson’s strong anti-nazi see opinions. When he was only nine his grandfather passed away and he moved in with his parents and younger brother. When he was 12 he was given a typewriter and began spending his evenings writing.
Although Larson is best known for writing crime fiction he actually started out as a science fiction writer. He was an avid science fiction reader from his youth and in the early 1970s he became quite active in the sci-fi community when he co-edited the fanzine called Sfaren. In the early 1970s Larson published many sci-fi fanzines (over 30) where he was also a contributor of short stories. He rose through the ranks of the Scandinavian science fiction community becoming a board member and then finally chairman of the Scandinavian Science Fiction Society.
At his death three manuscripts were discovered. These were what is now known as the Millennium Trilogy. It appears he made no attempts to have these published but wrote them for his own entertainment in the evenings. They were published after his death and went on to win some prestigious crime novelist awards including the Glass Key for the best Nordic crime novel of 2005. Larsson also left behind the better part of a fourth novel on his computer.
Prior to his career as a writer Larsson was known for his battles against right wing extremism and racism. While working as a graphic designer in the 1970s he was holding lectures on extremism for Scotland Yard. He eventually became an expert on the subject of Neo-Nazis, held many lectures and has written many novels on the subject. He was one of the driving forces behind the Expo-foundation, a group whose purpose is to expose neo-Nazis in Sweden. The last 15 years of his life were lived under a threat from these neo-Nazis. In fact many conspiracy theorists think there may be some involvement of the neo-Nazis in his demise. Stieg Larsson and his companion Eva Gabrielsson never left their home together. In fact when a union leader was murdered in 1999 by neo-Nazis the police eventually discovered some photos of the couple in his apartment. It appears that their fears were based on some facts.
This concludes our version of a Stieg Larsson obituary.